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4
Mahatma Gandhi — 1917.
2. ^
MAHATMA GANDHI
HIS LIFE, WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
WITH FOREWORD
BY
MRS. SAROJINI NAIDQr
4
GANESH & CO., MADRAS
'tyt/
All Rir/hts Reserved
" I see in Mr. Gandhi the patient
sufferer for the cause of righteousness
and mercy, a truer representative of
the Crucified Saviour than the men
who have thrown him into prison and
yet call themselves by the name of
■Christ." — Lord Bishop of Madras.
THE CAMBRIDGE PRESS, MADRAS
A
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
The publishers feel that no apology or
justification on their part is needed for sending
out this volume to the public. All who honour
nobility of purpose and high rectitude of
conduct, all who honour Mr. Gandhi, who is
as an embodiment of them, will be glad to have
in a collected form the writings and speeches
of a man whose words still linger behind his
deeds. This volume is by no means exhaustive.
Mr. Gandhi's speeches and writings lie scatter-
ed in various places and the task of collection
IS not yet over. When sufficient material has
accumulated the Publishers hope to issue a
second volume.
In conclusion, the Publishers desire to
express their thanks to a friend of theirs who
is responsible for the life-sketch, and to Mrs.
Sarojini Naidu for having contributed the
beautiful foreword found at the beginning of
this volume.
•^
CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword
i
Life Sketch
v-lxxxviii
Gandhi's Sense of Duty
... 1
Confession of Faith
... 2
Gandhi's Plea for the Soul
... 9
The Duties of British Citizenship ...
... 14
The Theory and Practice of Passive Resistance 17
Speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
... 22
Indians and their Employers
... 37
Reply to Madras Public Reception
... 45
Speech at the Madras Law Dinner
... 51
Advice to Students
... 53
Brahmans and Panchamas
... 60
Speech at the Nellore Conference ...
... 66
Reply to Bangalore Public
... 68
Mr. Gandhi on Mr. Gokhale
... 71
A Talk with Mr. Gandhi
... 75
Benares Incident
... 79
Indentured Labour
... 86
The Need of India • ...
... 93
Social Service '.,...
... 105
Contents
PAGE
Swadeshi ... ... ... 114
Economic ri". Moral Progress ... ... 128
Education Ancient and Modern ... ... 142
The Moral Basis of Co-operation ... ... 147
Indian Colonial Emigration ... ... 159
Indian Railways ... ... ... 165
Speech at Gujrat Educational Conference ... 175
Advice to Merchants ... ... ... 184
Vernaculars as Media of Instruction ... 187
APPENDIX I
Ihe Struggle of Passive Resistance ... 191
APPENDIX II
Indian Committee and Mr. Gandhi ... 213
History of Passive Resistence ... ... 214
Future Work ... ... ... 215
Ahimsa ... ... ... ... 216
Civic Freedom ... ... ... 221
Women and Passive Resistence ... ... 223
APPENDIX III— Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
Lord AmpthiU ... ... ... 225
Mrs. Besant ... ... ... 216
Sir P. M. Mehta ... ... ... 228
Lady Mehta ... ... ... 229
Mrs. Sarojini Naidu ... ... ... 230
Mr.G. K, Gokhale ... • ... ... 234
Babu Moti Lai Ghose . , .*.. ... 236
Contents
PAGE
Hon. Moulvi A. Fazul Haque ... ... 237
Mr. Gandhi in London ... ... 237
Lord Gladstone ... ... ... 238
Mr. Bhupendranath Basu ... ... 239
Mrs. Sarojini Naidu ... ... ... 240
Gandhi's Reply ... ... ... 240
Gandhi's Letter to " India " — An Appeal for
more Recruits ... ... ... 241
Fare v/ ell Reception at Westminister
Palace Hotel ... ... ... 243
Sir Henry Cotton ... ... ... 244
Mr. Parikh ... .,. ... 244
Mr. Charles Robert? ... ...245
Mrs. Olive Schreiner ... ... -46
Gandhi's Reply ... ... ... 246
APPENDIX IV
Lord Hardinge on the South African Situation 249
The Rev. Lord Bishop of Madras on the Souih
African Situation ... ... 252
APPENDIX V
Tolstoy on Passive Resistance ... ... 257
APPENDIX VI
Indigo Labour in Behar (Champaran Enquiry)., 263
Index ... ... ... ... 2:^3
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Mahatma Gandhi ... Frontispiece.
M. K.Gandhi, Barrister
xxi
Mrs. Doke
... xli
Mrs. H. S. L. Polak
• • »>
Mr. H. S. L. Polak
Ixix
Mr. H. Kallenback
»»
Miss Valiamma ...
.. Ixxxi
"Mrs. Sheik Meatab
5»
Mr. A. H. West ...
41
Mr. Maganlal K. Gandhi ...
»»
Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi
45
Harbatsingh
49
Mr. Budree Ahir
»«
Mr. G. K. Gokhale
73
Eev, C. F. Andrews
87
Mr. W. Hl. Pearson
»»
Rev. J. J. Doke ...
It
Sir M. M. Bhownaggree
.. 197
Mr. Ratan Tata ...
i>
Lord Ampthill ...
.. 201
Mr. Hajee Hoosen David ...
.. 227
Mrs. Annie Besant
»»
Lord Hardinge ...
.. 249
Count L. N. Tolstoy ... "
.. 257
Sir Rabindranath Tagore ...
»»
FOREWORD
" It is only India that knows how to honour-
greatness in rags " said a friend to me one day
as we watched Mahatma Gandhi cleaving his
way through the surging enthusiasm of a vast
assembly at Lucknow last year.
For, surely the sudden appearance of Saint
Francis of Assisi in his tattered robe in the
fashionable purlieus of London or Milan, Paris
or Petrograd to-day were scarcely more discon-
certing or incongruous than the presence of
this strange man with his bare feet and coarse
garments, his tranquil eyes, and calm, kind
smile that disclaims even while it acknow-
ledges a homage that emperors cannot buy.
But India, though she shift and enlarge her
circumference age after age keeps true to her
spiritual centre and retains her spiritual
vision undimmed and eager to acclaim her
saints. Let us not follow the conventional
mode of the world and wait for a man to be
.11. K. Gandhi
dead to canonise him ; but rather let our criti-
cal judgment confirm the unerring instinct
of the people that recognizes in Mahatma
Gandhi a lineal descendant of those great sons
of compassion who became the servants of
humanity — Gautama Buddha, Chaitanya,
Ramanuja, Ramakrishna.
He lacks, may be, the breadth and height and
ecstacy of their mystical attainment : but he is
not less than theirs in his intensity of love, his
sincerity of service and a lofty simplicity of
life which is the austere flower of renuncia-
tion and self-sacrifice.
There are those who impatient and afraid
of his exalted idealism would fain ignore him
as fanatic, a mere fanciful dreamer of inconve-
nient and impossible dreams.
And yet, who can deny that this gentle and
lowly apostle of passive resistance has more
than a militant energy and courage and knows
as Gokhale said how to " mould heroes out of
common clay?"
Who can deny that this inexorable idealist
who would reduce all life to an impersonal
formula is the most vital personal force in the
national movement and the jirophet of Indian
self-realization ? . . *
ii
Foreword
He has mastered the secret of real great-
ness and learnt that true Yoga is wisdom in
action and that love is the fulfilling of the law.
Hyderabad, ]
DECCAN, > SAROJINI NATDU
32nd Nov., 1917.)
Ill
MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND
GANDHI
A. SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND CAREER
The figure of Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi is to-day a transfigured presence in
the eyes of his countrymen. Like the unveil-
ing of some sanctuary, where the high gods
sit in session, or like some romance of the soul,
is his career. The loftiest ideals of conduct
of which man has dreamed are in him transla-
ted into actuality. He is the latest, though
not the least, of the world's apostles. He seems
for ever robed in vestments of shining white.
Infinitely gentle, to the inner ear, is his foot-
fall upon earth. His accents have the dewy
freshness of the dawn. His brows are steeped
in serenity and calm. His head is crowned
with the martyr's crown. The radiance of the
light spiritual encircles his whole being.
M. K. Gandhi
What shall it profit a man if he gain the
whole world and lose his own soul ! Return
good for evil. Hatred ceases not by hatred
but by love. How often has humanity in its
long story listened to such exhortations ! And
yet how few are the souls to whom they have
ever carried the waters of life ! To all men,
surely, come glimpses of the highest. At the
moment they touch our being with ecstasy
and fade even before they are recognised.
Not so with the great Ones of earth, the elect
of God. They live their lives as ever before
the altar. A divine inebriation is upon them
and they can know no rest till they have drain-
ed the immortal cup to the dregs. The steeps
they sight they needs must climb : and far
down in the valley there kneels before them
an adoring host of mortals.
The spontaneous and heartfelt reverence
which Mr. Gandhi's name inspires to-day is
a token that in him also India has recognised
one such born priest of the ideal. The Sermon
on the Mount may appear to many as
gloriously impractical, but to Mr. Gandhi at
least nothing is or ought to be more practical.
To turn the left cheek when the right is beaten;
to bless those that curse ; ,to suffer for
vi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
righteousness' sake ; these are the very ideals
to which he has surrendered his whole being.
And by impassioned devotion to them he has
developed a character before which men stand
in awe. To the self-discipline of the ascetic
he adds the sweetness and simplicity of a
saint. The hero's will is in him wedded to
the heart of a child. The service of man
answers to the love of God. It was of such
that it was said : Ve are the salt of the earth.
But how to write the life of such a ma-n ?
How to tell the story of the soul's develop-
ment ? The task is impossible. The hope'? and
strivings of millions fulfil themselves in a
single perfected character and to that extent
the common man makes the hero and the
apostle. The events of the personal drama
simply register the rise and fall of conscious-
ness ; their explanation is outside them. In
Mr. Gandhi's case, such a revelation came in
the shape of the South African struggle. It
was then that he burst upon the world as a
moral force of the first order. That force itself
had been long in preparing : how long who
shall say ? The story of that struggle with its
shining roll of rnartyrs, both men and women,
its thrilling incidents, marvellous pathos, and
vii
M. K. Gandhi
divine inspiration still waits for its destined
chronicler. When he conies and throws it into
terms of immortal literature it will assuredly
take rank with the most memorable and res-
plendent chapters of its kind in history. It was
an example and a demonstration of what one
man can do by the sheer force of his character.
It was likewise a demonstration of how masses
of men and women, apparently lifeless and
down-trodden, can develop astounding heroism
under the impulsion of a truly great and self-
less leader. The work done by Mr. Gandhi in
South Africa must ever be reckoned amongst
the greatest things accomplished by any single
man. His life prior to his emergence on
the South African stage was comparatively
uneventful except for one or two glimpses of
the coming greatness.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born
on the 2nd of October 1869, the youngest of
three children in a Vaishya family, at Porban-
der, a city of Kathiawar in Guzerat. Courage,
administrative capacity, and piety were heredi-
tary in the family. His immediate ancestors
were in their way quite remarkable. His
grand-father was Dewan of the Rana of
Porbander, and an incident recorded of him.
viii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
shows what a fearless nature he had. Incurr-
ing the displeasure of the Queen who was act-
ing as Regent for her son, he had actually to
flee the Court of Porbander and take refuge
with the Nawab of Junagadh who received him
with great kindness. The courtiers of the
Nawab observed and remarked that the ex-
Dewan of Porbander gave his salute to the
Nawab with his left hand in outrage of all
convention. But the intrepid man replied,
"Inspite of all that I have suffered I keep
my right hand for Porbander still." Mr Gan-
dhi's father was no less distinguished. Succee-
ding his father as Dewan of Porbander and
losing like him the favour of the Raling Chief,
he repaired to Rajkot where he was entertained
as Dewan. Here he rose rapidly in favour
and such was the high regard which the
Thakore Saheb of Rajkot came to have for him
that he (theThakore Saheb) pressed his minister
to accept a large grant of land in token of his
esteem. But wealth had no attractions for him,
and at first he declined the generous offer.
Even when the entreaties of friends and rela-
tives prevailed at last it was only a fraction of
what was offered that he could be persuaded
to accept. Even more interesting is another
ix
W. K. Gandhi
incident told of him. Happening to hear one
day the Assistant Political Agent hold abusive
language regarding the Thakore Sahib, he
indignantly repudiated it. His Omnipotence
the Political Agent demanded an apology
which was stoutly refused. To rehabilitate
his dignity the Assistant Political Agent there-
upon ordered the offending Dewan to be
arrested and detained under a tree for some
hours! The apology was eventually waived
and a reconciliation effected. Comment
is needless. Mr. Gandhi's father was also
a man of severe piety and could repeat the
Baghavad Gita from end to end. His mother,
however, was the most remarkable of all.
Her influence on the character of her son has
been profound and ineffaceable. Religion was
the breath of her life. Long and rigorous
were her fasts; many and lavish were her
charities; and never could she brook to see a
starving soul in her aeighbourhood. Though
in these respects she was typical of the Hindu
woman, yet one feels that there must have
been something unique about her. How else
could she have been the mother of a Gandhi ?
Tn a home presided over by such a mother
was his childhood passed. He was duly put to
A Sketch of His Life and Career
school at Porbander but a change occurring in
its fortunes the whole family removed to
Rajkot. Here the boy studied at first in a
Vernacular school, and afterwards in the
Kathiawar High School, whence he passed the
matriculation examination at the age of seven-
teen. It may here be said that Mr. Gandhi was
married as a boy of twelve to the noble soul
who is now his partner in life and the glorified
participator in all his sufferings and struggles.
An incident in his school life deserves more
than ordinary mention. Born and bred in an
atmosphere of uncompromising Vaishnavism,
he had learned to perfection its ritual and
worship, if not also to some extent, its ration-
ale and doctrine. The principle of Ahimsa,
non-killing (non-resistance to evil generally),
is one of the keynotes of this teaching and
Vaishnavas are, as a rule, strict vegetarians.
But those were the days when even a school-
boy unconsciously imbibed a contempt for
religion in general and for the ways of his
forefathers in particular. Mr. Gandhi seems
to have been no exception to this rule. Truth
to say, the young Gandhi became a veritable
sceptic even at the stage of his school career.
This wreck of faith brought one disastrous
xi
M. K. Gandhi
consequence in its train. He and some
school-companions of his came sincerely to
believe that vegetarianism was a folly and
superstition, and that to be civilised, the
eating of flesh was essential. Nor were the
boys slow to put their belief into action.
Buying some flesh in secret every evening,
they went to a secluded spot on the bank of a
stream, cooked it and made a convivial meal.
But Mr. Gandhi's conscience was all the while
never at peace- At home he had to tell lies to
excuse his lack of appetite and one subterfuge
led to another. The boy loved truth and
hated falsehood, and simply to avoid telling
lies he abjured flesh-eating for ever. Truly
the boy is father of the man !
After he passed the matriculation examina-
tion he was advised by a friend of the family
to go to England and qualify himself for the
Bar. His mother, however, would not listen to
any such thing. Many a gruesome tale had the
good woman heard of the abandoned nature of
life in England and she shrank from the pros-
pect of exposing her son to all its temptations
as from the thought of hell. But the son
was firm and the mother had to yield. But not
until she had taken her son to a Jain Sannyasin
xii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
and made him swear three solemn vows
forswearing wine, flesh and women, did she
give her consent.
Once in England Mr. Gandhi set about to
make of himself a thorough ' English gentle-
man.' An Indian friend of his, then in
England, who gloried in his anglicised ways
took him in hand and gave lessons in fashion.
Under his leadership he began to school
himself in dancing, English music, and
French, in fact in all the accomplishments
needed for the great role of the ' English
gentleman.' His heart, however, was never
in the matter. The vows he had taken at his
mother's instance haunted him strangely.
One day he went to a party and there was
served with flesh soup. It was a critical
moment. His conscience swelled in protest
and bade him make his choice on the spot bet-
ween his three vows and the character of the
English gentleman. And conscience won.
Much to the chagrin of his friend before
alluded to, he rose from the table and
committed the great social sin of quitting the
party abruptly. A great triumph for a youth 1
He thereafter bade adieu to all his new-
fangled ways : his feet ceased to dance, his
xiii
M. K. Gandhi
fingers knev/ the violin no more, and the
possibilities of the ' English gentleman ' in him
were lost for ever.
All this proved to be but the beginning of
a keen spiritual struggle which stirred his being
to its depths and out of which he emerged into
an assured self-consciousness and abiding
peace of soul. The eternal problems of
existence now faced him and pressed for an
answer. That this struggle was not merely
intellectual, that it was no passing spasm such
as even inferior men have known is proved
by his subsequent career. As in the case of
all great souls, his entire being was, we may
take it, cast into the crucible to be melted
and poured into divine moulds. The sense of
an insufferable void within and without, that
tribulation of the spirit which lays hands
of torture upon the barred doors of the heart
and unseals the inner vision — this it was that
assailed him. At this critical time, friends
were not wanting who tried to persuade him
that in Christianity he would find the light
for which he yearned. But these apparently
did not meet with much success. At the same
time he began to make a close study of the
Bhagavad Gita, and it was the spiritual
xiv
A Sketch of His Life and Career
panorama which here was unveiled before him
that finally stilled the commotion of his soul.
It was here that he found the staff upon
which he could lean. The void was now filled,
light flooded his being and he had sensed
the peace that passeth understanding. Here-
after the soul's endeavour was to be one, not
of search, but realisation.
Mr. Gandhi's stay in England was otherwise
uneventful. He passed the London Matricula-
tion Examination, qualified himself for the
Bar, and returned to India.
Melancholy news awaited his arrival in
Bombay. Unknown to himself a calamity,
which to a Hindu at least is one of the great
calamities of life, had befallen hirn. His
mother who had loved him as perhaps only a
Hindu mother could, who had saved him from
moral ruin, and who had doubtless winged
ceaseless thoughts of love and prayer for her
far-away son in England,that angel of a mother
was no more. She had been dead sometime
and the occurrence had been purposely kept a
secret from him. We shall not attempt to
describe his feelings when at last the news was
disclosed to him.
The next eighteen months Mr. Gandhi spent,
XV
M. K. Gandhi
partly at Bombay and partly at Rajkot, devot-
ing himself to a deeper study of love and the
Hindu scriptures. He also set up practice in
the Bombay High Court. But there was other
work to do for him in a different part of the
•world and the fates thus fulfilled themselves.
A firm at Porbander which had a branch at
Pretoria had an important law-suit in South
Africa in which several Indians were con-
cerned. The conduct of this suit expected to
last for over a year being offered to him, he
accepted it and proceeded to South Africa.
And here perhaps it will be fitting to envisage
in general outline the position of the Indian
immigrant in South Africa at the time. That
position was frankly one of the utmost
ignominy and injustice. More than half a
■century ago the colony of Natal wanted cheap
labour for the development of its resources,
and its eyes were turned to India as the best
market for this supply- Representations were
accordingly made to the Government of India
through the Imperial Governm.ent and the
indenture system was inaugurated. One gathers
that in the early negotiations that went on
between the Imperial and the Indian Govern-
ments on the question, solemn promises were
xvi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
made by the Imperial Government that th©^
indentured immigrant would be treated with
every consideration during the term of inden-
ture and thereafter be accorded every facility
to settle in South Africa if he so chose. But
the way to a certain place is paved with good,
intentions and after a time the indenture sys-
tem fast proved itself an abomination. Thou-
sands of sturdy peasants from all parts of
India, simple souls caught in the meshes of
the recruiting agents by specious promises of
a land flowing with milk and honey, found
themselves on landing in South Africa waking
up to a hopeless sense of anguish and disillu-
sionment. The physical and moral conditions
of life on the estates were ideally calculated
to turn the very angels into brutes. The treat-
ment accorded to the indentured labourer by
his master was, to bo as mild as possible,,
revolting in the extreme. The slave-owner was
at least compelled "by his selfishness to take
care of the physical comfort of his human
chattels but the employer of indentured labour
was destitute of even this consideration ! The
tales of cruelty and individual suffering that
has been collected and published almost tempt
us to think that man was made not in the
xvii
M. K. Gandhi
image of God but in that of His Ancient Enemy.
And the most hopeless feature of the situation
was that these victims of colonial greed were
boimd to serve their term and that they had
no chance of laying, and much less of making
good, any case against their masters. The
laws themselves were unjust to the inden-
tured labourer and were atrociously adminis-
tered.
The position of the indentured labourer who
had served his term and did not desire to
re-enlist was one of calculated invidiousness.
At every step he was hemmed in by a thou-
sand obstacles thrown in his way and intended
to frustrate any attempt to acquire a livelihood
in freedom. Law and society conspired
together to fix the brand of helotry to his brow.
It was brought home to him in numberless ways
that he was regarded as the member of some
sub-human species, in whom it was sacrilege
to defile the earth occupied by the white man,
except as his hewer of wood and drawer of
water. The law of the land here also did but
reflect this dominant spirit of exclusiveness. It
made distinctions between man and man on
the ground of colour and race. In Natal, for
instance, every ex-indentured Indian, man,
xviii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
woman, and child (boys and girls over a certain
age) had to pay a poll tax of £3 per head. It is
unnecessary, however to catalogue in detail the
various disabilities legal, economic, political
and social under which the Indian laboured.
The small body of professional people,
lawyers, doctors, merchants, religious teachers,
who followed in the wake of the indentured
Indian, these also, whatever their position and
culture, fell equally under the same ban. The
coloured man was in the eyes of the white
colonist in South Africa a vile and accursed
thing. There could be no distinction here of
high and low. If these colonials had been asked
to paint God they wotild have painted him
white ! There were certain differences in the
position of the Indian between one province
and another, in South Africa itself, the ideal in
this line having been attained in the Transvaal
and the Orange Free State, then independent.
Not to labour the tale throughout South
Africa the law was unjust to the Indian and
man inhuman.
It is however interesting to think what a
medley of elements contributed to this attitude.
First and foremost, there was the antipathy of
colour and race — to what lengths this can go
xix
M. K. Gandhi
in the modern civilized West, the American'
institution of lynching sufficiently illustrates.
Secondly, there was the economic factor — the^
free Indian was a formidable competitor in
trade to the small white dealer. His habits were
simple, his life temperate, and he was able to
sell things much more cheaply. Thirdly, there
was the instinct of earth-monopoly— South
Africa must be and continue to remain a white
man's land. Lastly, there was a vague feeling-
that the influx of the coloured man was a grow-
ing menace to the civilization of the white.
The solution of the problem from the point of
view of the South African colonist was very-
simple — to prohibit all immigration in the
future, and to make the position of those that
already had come so intolerable as to drive
them to repatriate themselves. And towards
this end, forces were inwardly making in South
Africa when Mr. Gandhi first landed there. The
paradox of the whole thing lay in the fact, that
while India had been asking for the Indian, in
South Africa, the elementary rights of a
British citizen, the colonial was all the while
thinking of casting him out for ever as an
unclean thing.
From the very day that Mr. Gandhi set foot
XX
Mr. G\NDHI Barrisfer.
XXI
A Sketch of His Life and Career
bX Natal he had to taste of the bitter cup of
humiliation which was then the Indian's
portion. At court he was rudely ordered to
remove the barrister's turban he had on, and
he left the court at once burning with mortifi-
cation. This experience, however, was soon
eclipsed by a host of others still more
ignominous. Journeying to the Transvaal in
a railway train, the guard unceremoniously
ordered him to quit the first-class compart-
ment, though he had paid for it, and betake
himself to the van. Refusing, he was brutally
dragged out with his luggage. And the train
at once steamed off. All this was on British
soil ! In the Transvaal itself things were even
worse. As he was sitting on the box of a
coach on the way to Pretoria, the guard asked
him to dismount because he wanted to. smoke
there. A refusal brought two consecutive
blows in quick succession. In Pretoria he
was once kicked off a foot-path by a sentry^
The catalogue may be still further, extended,
but it would be a weariness of the flesh.
The law. suit which he had been ! engaged
to conduct , was at last ;over, and. a • social
gathering was given in. his ; honour on - the
eve of his departure for India. That evening
xxi
M. K. Gandhi
Mr. Gandhi chanced to see a local newspaper
which announced that a bill was about to be
introduced into the colonial Parliament to
disfranchise Indians and that other bills of a
similar character were soon to follow. With
true insight he immediately perceived the
gravity of the situation, and explained to
the assembled guests that if the Indian
community in South Africa was to be saved
from utter extinction immediate and resolute
action should be taken. At his instance a
message was at once sent to the colonial
Parliament requesting delay of proceedings,
which was soon followed up by a largely
signed petition against the new measure. But
all this was of no avail. The bill was passed
in due course. Now another largely signed
petition was sent to the Colonial Secretary in
England, and in consequence the Royal Assent
was withheld. But this again was of no avail
for the same goal was reached by a new bill
through a slightly different route. Now it
was that Mr. Gandhi seriously mooted the
question of a central organization in South
Africa to keep vigilant watch over Indian
interests. But it was represented to him that
such an organization would be impossible un-
xxii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
less he himself consented to remain in South
Africa. The prominent Indians guaranteed
him a "practice if he should choose to stay.
In response to their wishes he enrolled him-
self in the Supreme Court of Natal though not
without some objection, at first, on the ground
of his colour. Thus began for him that long
association with South Africa which was
destined to have such memorable results.
From a moral point of view the choice
that he made to remain in South Africa, to
which he had gone only on a temporary
professional visit, was the first great act of
Mr. Gandhi's public career. A young man
with his life before him and every prospect of
carving distinction for himself in his own
native land is called upon to brush all that
aside and devote himself to the uplift of his
own countrymen in a far away land amidst
circumstances of disgusting humiliation and
struggle. How many in Mr. Gandhi's position
would have made the same choice ? How many
would have had the same passivity to surren-
der themselves to the guiding hand of destiny ?
How many would have placed service above
self? But to men born for great ends such
crises of the soul come only to find them pre-
xxiii
M. K. Gandhi
pared. The South African Indian community
were like a flock of sheep without a shepherd,
surrounded by ravenous wolves, and Mr.
Gandhi chose to be the shepherd. South Africa
was the vine-yard of the Lord in which he was
called upon to dig and delve, and he chose to
be the labourer. From the day that his-
resolve was taken he consecrated himself to
his work as to a high and lofty mission.
His first step, was to make his countrymen
in South Africa articulate. And with this
object he organised them into various societies-
all over the land. He trained them in methods
of constitutional agitation and for the pur-
pose held meetings and conferences, and pro-
moted petitions and memorials. He also
sought out young men willing and capable
and trained them for public work. And it
was his character that imparted vitality to all
his endeavours. By mixing with high and
low on equal terms, by his readiness to succour
the needy and console the afflicted, by the
example he set of a simple, pure and austere
life, by his transparent sincerity and perfect
selflessness he made a profound impression
upon them all and acquired an influence which
deepened in the passage of the years into a
xxiv
A Sketch of His Life and Career
^boundless reverence. Nor should it be forgotten
that, that amongst the European community
itself there were some good men and true who
saw and recognised in him a soul of transcen-
dent goodness.
In the year 1896 Mr. Gandhi came to India
to take his wife and children to South Africa.
Before he left South Africa he wrote and
published an ' open letter ' detailing the wrongs
and grievances of his countrymen resident
there.
News of the splendid work which he had
done in South Africa had travelled before him
■to India, and Indians of all classes joined
in according him an enthusiastic reception
wherever he went. In these meetings Mr.
Gandhi had of course to make some speeches.
Our good friend, Renter, sent highly garbled
versions of his addresses to South Africa.
He was represented as telling his Indian
audiences that Indians in South Africa were
uniformly treated like wild beasts. The
blood of the Colonials was up and the feeling
against Mr. Gandhi reached white heat.
Meeting after meeting was held in which he
was denounced in the most scathing terms.
Meanwhile he. was urgently requested to return
XXV
M. K. Gandhi
to Natal without a raoinent's delay, and he
embarked accordingly.
The steamer carrying Mr. Gandhi reached
Durban on the same day as another steamer^
which had left Bombay with 600 Indian
passengers on board two days after Mr.
Gandhi's own departure. The two ships were
immediately quarantined indefinitely. Great
things were transpiring at Durban meanwhile.
The Colonials were determined not to land the
Asiatics. Gigantic demonstrations were taking
place, and the expediency of sending the
Indians back was gravely discussed. It was
plain that the Colonials would go any length
to accomplish their purpose. The more bois-
terous spirits even proposed the sinking of the
ship. Word was sent to Mr. Gandhi that if he
and his compatriots should attempt to land
they should do so at infinite peril ; but threats
were of no avail. On the day on which the
new Indian arrivals were expected to land a
huge concourse had assembled at the docks.
There was no end of hissing, shouting, roaring
and cursing. The Attorney-General of Natal
addressed the infuriate gathering and promised
them that the matter would receive the early
attention of Parliament, commanding them at
xxvi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
the same time in the name of the Queen to dis-
perse. And the crowd dispersed. Mr. Gandhi
came ashore sometime after the landing of his
fellow-passengers, having previously sent his
wife and children to the house of a friend. He
was immediately recognised by some of the
stragglers who at once began to set up a howl.
A rickshaw was engaged, but the way was
blocked. Mr. Gandhi walked on foot with a
European friend and when they reached one
of the streets the pressure was so great that
the two friends were separated. The crowd at
once began to maul Mr. Gandhi till the Police
came and took him to the house of a friend.
The Police Superintendent expressed his
apprehensions that the mob in their frenzy
would even set fire to the house. Mr. Gandhi
was obliged to dress himself as a Police
constable and take refuge in the Police Station.
This ebullition of abnormal feeling subsided
after some time and a momentous page in
Mr. Gandhi's life was turned.
In October 1899 war broke out between the
English and the Boers in South Africa.
Mr. Gandhi, with the sagacity of a true leader
at once perceived what a golden opportunity
it was to the British Indians to vindicate
• xxvii
M. K. Gandhi
their self-respect and readiness to suffer in the
cause of the Empire. At his call hundreds
of his countrymen in South Africa were glad
to enlist themselves as Volunteers, but the
offer was rejected with scorn by the powers
that be. The offer was renewed a second
time, only to meet with a similar fate. When
however the British arms sustained some
disasters, it was recognised that every man
available should be put into the field and
Mr. Gandhi's offer on behalf of his compatriots
was accepted. A thousand Indians came for-
ward, and were constituted into an Ambulance
Corps, to assist in carrying the wounded to
the hospitals. Of the service that was
rendered in that direction, it is not necessary
to speak as it has been recognised even in
South Africa. At another time the British
Indians were employed to receive the wounded
out of the line of fire and carry them to a place
more than twenty miles off. When the battle
was raging. Major Bapte who was commanding
came to Mr. Gandhi who of course was one of
the Volunteers, and represented that if they
worked from within the line of the fire they
should be rendering inestimable service. At
once all the Indian Volunteers responded to
xxviii '
A Sketch of His Life and Career
■the request and dauntlessly exposed them-
rselves to shot and shell. Many an Indian life
"was lost that day.
The war was over and the Transvaal became
a part of the British Empire. Mr. Gandhi
was under the impression that, since the
wrongs of the British Indian subjects of the
-Queen were one of the declared causes of the
war, under the new Government those wrongs
would be a thing of the past. And accord-
ingly he returned to India with no idea of
going back, but he was reckoning without his
host. The little finger of the new Government
was thicker than the loins of the Boers. The
Boers had indeed stung the Indian subjects of
the Queen with whips but the new Govern-
ment stung them with scorpions. A new
Asiatic department was constituted to
deal with Asiatics as a species apart. A most
insidious policy of exclusion was maturing.
The prospect was dark and appalling and
Mr. Gandhi had to return to the scene of his
labours. He interviewed the authorities but
he was assured that he had no business to
interfere in the matter while they themselves
were there to look after everything. Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain was then in South Africa
xxix
M. K. Gandhi
and a deputation led by Mr. Gandhi waited
upon him in Natal. In Pretoria however a
similar deputation was disallowed unless Mr.
Gandhi was excluded. Evidently Mr. Gandhi's
name was becoming gall and worm-wood to
the authorities. But he was not the man to be
frightened. He determined to fight out the
battle in the Law Courts and enrolled himself
on the Supreme Court of Pretoria.
He now felt more than ever the imperative
need of an organ which should at once educate
the South African Indian community on the
one hand and be on the other the faithful
mouth-piece of their views. In 1903 a press
was bought and the paper " Indian Opinion "
was ushered into existence. It was published
in four languages, English, Tamil, Guzerati
and Hindi. At first it didn't prove a success and
entailed such heavy loss that during the first
year alone Mr. Gandhi had to pay a sum of
£ 2,000 out of his own pocket. Though in
subsequent years the financial position of the
paper has somewhat improved, it has never
been a pecuniary success. Notwithstanding,
it has grown to be a great force in South
Africa and rendered invaluable service during
the recent struggle.
XXX
A Sketch of His Life and Career
In the year 1904 a virulent attack of plague
broke out among the Indian Community in
Johannesburg. The Municipal authorities were
either ignorant or apathetic. Mr. Gandhi,
however, was at once on the scene and sent
word to the authorities that if immediate
action were not taken an epidemic was in
prospect. But no answer came. One day the
plague carried off as many as twenty-one vic-
tims. Mr. Gandhi with three or four noble
comrades at once broke open one of the Indian
stores which was empty, and had the patients
carried there and did what he could in the
matter. The next morning the Municipal
authorities bestirred themselves and took the
necessary action. The plague lasted a month
counting more than a hundred victims. We
in India may shudder to think to what an
appalling magnitude the outbreak may have
grown but for the heroic endeavours of the
subject of this sketch, and his devoted com-
rades. In such ways, indeed, had Mr. Gandhi's
influence begun to bear fruit.
It was about this time also that Mr. Gandhi
founded the famous " Phoenix Settlement."
He had been reading Ruskin's Unto this Last
and its influence sank deep into his mind.
' xxxi
M. K. Gandhi
He was at once on fire with the author's
idea of country settlements and shortly
after the plague subsided, Mr. Gandhi went
to Natal and purchased a piece of land at
Phoenix, a place situated " on the hill sides
of a rich grassy country." Houses were built
and a village sprang up on the mountain side.
In this 'settlement' Mr. Gandhi sought to
enshrine his ideal of the simple life.
It was to be a retreat from the bustle of city
life where men and womenmightby communion
with nature seek to divest their life and mind
of all artificial trappings and come nearer to the
source of their own being. It was to be an
ashrama, a spot of sanctity and peace.
Its members were to be a spiritual brotherhood
and were to know no differences of rank. To
all alike labour was to be a privilege and a
joy. All had to dig, plough and cultivate the
adjoining land with their own hands. Mr,
Gandhi himself when he was in South Africa
used to go to the village during his momenta
of leisure and take part in the work of culti-
vation like anybody else. But he had to fulfil
this sublime idealistic impulse of his at
immense pecuniary sacrifice^ for the scheme,
we are told " absolutely impoverished him."
xxxii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
It was here also that Mr. Gandhi practised
a great tapasya. Bere he laid upon himself
and his family the yoke of an iron discipline
in daily habit. He stripped himself of all
luxury in externals. He wore the coarsest
raiment and for food took only so much as
would suffice to keep body and soul together.
He slept upon a coarse blanket in the open
air. He starved the flesh and reined in the
mind. A.nd his soul waxed in joy and strength.
And to those that beheld it was a marvel and
a wonder.
In 1906 the Zulus broke out in rebellion
and a corps of twenty Indians with Mr.
Gandhi as leader was formed to help to carry
the wounded to the hospital. The corps
subsequently acted as nurses and Mr. Gandhi
ministered in person to the wounded Zulus..
The founding of the Phoenix Ashrama and the
nursing of the Zulus with all their meaning in
terms of the higher life were a fitting prelude
to what was about to follow.
In the year 1906 the new Government of the
Transvaal brought forward a new law affecting
all Asiatics, which was sinister, retrograde
and obnoxious in the last degree. One morn-
ing all the children of Asia in the Transvaal
xxxiii
M. K. Gandhi
awoke and found themselves called upon to
register themselves anew by giving thumb
impressions. Thus all Asiatics were placed
on a level with convicts. And yet these light-
hearted legislators and their compatriots were
by profession the flock of an Asiatic whose
injunction to his disciples was to go forth
amongst the children of men as lambs amongst
wolves ! Who will dare to say that in the
dealings of the western nations with 'coloured'
races this spirit has ever been much in
evidence ? How else could these colonials,
have so merrily blackened a whole continent
which has been the home of the oldest
civilisations and has given to humanity its
greatest prophets and saviours ? But in this
case also the Asiatic lambs were destined to
give a glorious object-lesson to the wolves.
The object of the new measure was
apparently to prevent unlawful immigration
from what they regarded as the pariah
continent. Now the Indian Community
throughout South Africa and their leaders
were quite willing that reasonable restrictions
should be placed on all future immigration
though on abstract considerations of justice
they could have insisted upon the right of the
xxxiv
A Sketch of His Life and Career
* open door.' But what they had been agitat-
ing against all these years and what they
could not reconcile themselves to was that
this object should be compassed by laws
which tended to differentiate them on any
ground of colour or race. The principle of
equality of all races before the law, how-
ever much its application may have to be
tempered by considerations of circumstance,
had been the very head and front of their
demands. And now defiance and contempt
were hurled at them in the shape of this new
law. It was at the same time a certainty
that it was but the precursor in the Transvaal
and in other parts of South Africa of more
insidious and flagrant measures intended to
drive out the Indian Community once and for
ever. And it was hailed by the colonials as
the beginning of the end, while the Indian
Community was convulsed with indignation.
Meanwhile Mr. Gandhi and his co-workers
were not idle. They proceeded to interview
the member of the Government in charge
of the new bill, but when they succeeded only
in getting women excluded from its operation
it was realised that there was now nothing
left for persuasion to accomplish. The
XXXV
M. K- Gandhi
Legislative Council passed the new measure
after the farce of a discussion. Infinitely-
more important to us are the proceedings^
of another meeting held in that very city and
at the very time when the bill was being
rushed through the council. It is an immense
gathering, consisting of several thousands of
Indians of all classes and creeds. A great
spirit animates all. Impassioned speeches are
made denouncing the new law. But now at
the close the great throng rises up and shouts-
a solemn 'Amen.' It is the vow of passive
resistance that he has thus been administered.
Those thousands had decided not against the
new bill but against the new Act. They
had decided also that henceforth they were tO'
be the masters of their own fate and not
General Smuts or Botha or the Legislative
Council. And the onlooker may well have
whispered to himself, " To-day we have been
present at the lighting of a fire which will
never go out."
It was a momentous step. But Mr, Gandhi
on whom the burden of leadership now lay
heavily was eager to take any step that
promised an alternative solution. And accord-
ingly a deputation under his leadership and
xxxvi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
that of Mr. Ali was sent to England to agitate,
if possible, against the Royal Assent being
given to the new legislation. The Hoyal
Assent was withheld in consequence till a
constitutional Government should be installed
in the Transvaal. As a result of its efforts a
committee in London with Lord Amphthill,
ex-Governor of Madras, as President, Sir
Mancherjee Bowanaggree as Executive Chair-
man, and Mr. Ritch as Secretary, was also
formed to keep guard over Indian interests
in South Africa. But the relief thus obtained
was only temporary, A constitutional Govern-
ment was soon formed in the Transvaal, the
new measure was passed in hot haste, received
the Royal Assent, and became law.
Thus was the Indian community in the
Transvaal impelled upon the great destiny of
* passive resistance.' To register or not to
register was now the question : to register and
sell their honour and self-respect for a mess of
pottage or not to register and take up arms
against a ' sea of troubles.' Like the voico of
God speaking to the inmost soul was Mr.
Gandhi's appeal to his countrymen at this
hour. There could be no question, he explained,
of their submitting to this final and crowning
xxxvii
c
M. K. Gandhi
challenge of colonial insolence to Indian
manhood. There was nothing left but to bare
the majesty of their own souls to the storm and
defy it to do its utmost. The prison and the
gaol were now to be the cells of their own
self-discipline. All the forces of darkness in
league were powerless to move them from the
firm-set purpose of their own hearts. Was
spirit greater than matter ? Was the body to
be nailed to the cross or the soul ? Was not
Heaven itself beckoning them to the great
Heights ? In such wise did Mr. Gandhi adjure
his countrymen.
The words of the leader awoke a responsive
thrill in thousands of intrepid hearts. Like
one man they vowed against the registration.
Like one man they resolved to face prosecu-
tion and persecution, dungeon and death itself.
Like one man they resolved to make atone-
ment for the heaped-up humiliations of many
years by a supreme and triumphant act of
self-vindication which should rivet the eyes of
the whole world. The hour of the spirit's
rebound when individuals and communities
alike cleave through every consideration
save that of their own integrity, that hour
had come.
xxxviii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
The passive resistance movement had
commenced. The registering officers went
about from place to place, but little business
had they to do as ninety-five per cent, of the
people remained true to their oath. The law
took its course and a veritable saturnalia of
imprisonments ensued. The gaols became
literally crammed with the Indians who
suffered for conscience' sake. High and low,
rich and poor went to the gaol as to the
bridal. Husband was separated from wife,
child from parent, and yet the fervour and
pertinacity of the sufferers abated not. Mr.
Gandhi himself was sentenced to two months'
simple imprisonment. During the trial he
took full responsibility for the course adopted
by the Indian community and asked for the
maximum punishment for himself. The
authorities were naturally perturbed to see
the worm turning and for the first time
displayed a chastened mood. Negotiations
were opened through the mediation of one,
Mr. Cartwright, a journalist, and it was agreed
that the new law should be suspended for
three months, that in the meanwhile regis-
tration should be made voluntarily, and
that at the end of the period it should be
xxxix
M. K. Gandhi
repealed. In pursuance of this arrangement
Mr. Gandhi himself, to set an example, went to
the office to register. The position of a leader
is fraught with peril, and a Pathan who
had joined the passive resistance movement
imagined that Mr. Gandhi was playing the
coward and betraying his trust. Under this
impression he dealt him such severe blows
on his way to the registration office that he
instantly fell down senseless on the spot. A&
a result of the injuries received he hovered
between life and death for some time, during
which the wife of his good friend and admirer,
the Rev. Mr. Doke, a baptist minister of
Johannesburg, devotedly nursed him back to
life. His friends afterwards asked him to
take legal action against the Pathan but he
replied that the Pathan had done only what he
considered to be right! This incident threw
the situation into confusion for the moment
but subsequently the process of voluntary
registration was satisfactorily completed and
the authorities were called upon to perform
their part of the compact. But this they
refused to do, and all efforts at compromise
proving futile there was no\v no alternative
but to resume the struggle.
nx
A Sketch of His Life and Career
Once more did the rapture of suffering come
upon thousands and the prison-house become
a holy of holies. And how glorious was the
spirit which had come upon them ! Gentle and
meek and uncomplaining,it was the very spirit
of that Cross which their persecutors professed
to follow but honoured so little in practice. It
was almost as if one heard these men exclaim,
" Lord, forgive them, for they know not what
they do." From every class and sect were the
heroes drawn. Many among them were the
poorest of the poor, living by the sweat of
the brow and innocent of ' education.' Wealthy
merchants went into voluntary insolvency
rather than prove false to their vow. The
ruin and misery caused, the dislocation of
family life, the hunger and starvation of the
women and children were indescribable. But
the women amidst all the desolation of their
hearts only cheered the men on ! The passive
resisters were subjected to cruel hardships and
indignities in gaol that their spirit might be
broken, but this served only to quicken and
intensify it. They had tasted of an immortal
cup and anguish itself had now become only
the food of their souls.
To us in Southern India it is a matter
xli
M. K. Gandhi
for splendid pride that amongst them all none
displayed greater resolution or a more indomi-
table fibre than the children of the Tamil land.
It has been calculated that out of a total
population of nine thousand male Indians
in the Transvaal two thousand seven hundred
had in this v^ay suffered ' untold miseries in
prison,' and many of them again and again.
Needless to say, Mr. Gandhi himself was one
of the victims this time also, being sentenced
to a term of two months with hard labour.
We have no space to refer to the hardships
he endured with his brother sufferers in jail,
to his many acts of self-denial, and to the
sublime manner in which he bore up, believing
as he did that suffering is the heaven-or-
dained path to perfection. That so many
should have been consumed by the apostolic
fire and should have so clearly realised the
issues at stake is a tribute at once to the
relentless fury of the persecutors, the spiritual
force of Mr. Gandhi, and the greatness of
common human nature.
After his release from his second term of
imprisonment Mr. Gandhi organised two
deputations, one to England and the other to
India for the purpose of educating public
ilii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
opinion in both countries. Several of the
delegates were arrested on the eve of their
departure and sentenced to prison as passive
resisters. But Mr. Gandhi and some others
nevertheless went to England and were
successful in awakening some interest in the
matter. The Transvaal ministers were then
in England and the Imperial authorities tried
to bring about a settlement. But General
Smuts was implacable and nothing worth
mentioning came of it. Arrangements were
however made for a body of volunteers who
undertook to collect funds and keep public
interest alive, and the deputation returned to
South Africa.
The deputation to India consisted of but one
individual, that doughty and indefatigable
champion of the Indian cause in South Africa,
and Editor of the paper ' Indian Opinion,^
Mr. H. S. L. Polak. Feeling in India had
reached a high pitch of resentment against the
policy of the Transvaal Government even
before his arrival. But when he under the
direction of the late Mr. Gokhale toured the
country and narrated in dozens of meetings
the heart-rending tale of the South African
persecution that feeling easily reached boiling-
xliii
M. K. Gandhi
point and the demand for reprisals came from
every quarter of the land. Funds also came
pouring in for the relief of the distressed
children in a far-away land who had done so
much to raise their motherland in the esti-
mation of the world.
One great and immediate result of Mr.
Polak's propaganda was that attention in India
was concentrated upon the enormities of the
Indenture system as never it had been
concentrated before. And when in March 1912
the late Mr. Gokhale moved 'in the Imperial
Legislative Council a resolution for its aboli-
tion in a speech of classic force and dignity, the
Government of India had to bow to Indian
public opinion and signify acceptance. It was
the first great victory of the Passive Resistance
movement.
In South Africa itself the movement had
a two-fold reaction. On the one hand, it made
an indelible impression upon the better mind
of the colonial and this found expression in the
formation of a committee called the Hosken
Committee.under the presidency of Sir William
Hosken, a good, ardent and noble man, who in
the face of obloquy from his own countrymen
expoused the Indian cause wit^h a zeal that
iliv
A Sketch of His Life and Career
was above all praise. On the other hand,
it spurred the authorities to that increasing
vindictiveness which imagines that the soul
could be coerced by a more thoroughgoing
application of brute force.
With the blindness that has characterised
the persecutor in history the authorities in the
Transvaal strengthened their hands by a new
power, ^;^2r., that of deportation, hoping thereby
to foil the Passive Reaister. A.t first they
deported the more prominent of them across
the Natal border but these returned as fast as
they were sent out. Not to be baulked the
authorities now went the length of deporting
a good many of the passive resisters, about
sixty-four in number, all the way to India.
But these again were sent back with the
sympathy and admiration of a whole nation.
Utterly lost to all sense of shame the Transvaal
authorities by hook and by crook did their
level best to prevent them from landing. And
one of the returning deportees, a lion-hearted
youth Narayanaswamy, by name, hunted in
this way from one British port to another
died in Delgoa Bay in Portuguese territory.
And his martyr-death threw a fresh halo of
sanctity over the cause. The Government
xlv
M. K. Gandhi
of India greatly impressed by the gravity
of the situation in India consequent on the
Transvaal occurrences moved the Imperial
Government in England, who in their turn did
their best to woo the Transvaalies to a more
conciliatory mood. And the result was that
the deportation process subsequently stopped.
After the various provinces of South Africa
had been constituted into the South African
Union the Imperial Government in England at
the insistence of the Government of India
strove gnce more to persuade the Union
Government to effect a reasonable settlement
of the problem, and for the purpose, addressed
to the latter a despatch in October 1910, recom-
mending the repeal of the law which had been
the origin of the whole trouble, and the
adoption of legislation on non-racial lines
which, while prohibiting all future immigration
in effect, will yet leave room for the entry into
South Africa of a small and defined minimum
of educated people. At the same time the
Imperial Government pointed out that any
such law should not have the effect of taking
away any rights till then enjoyed by
immigrants in the coast-lying provinces. This
time the Union Government were willing
xlvi
A Sketch ofiHis Life and Career
to consider the suggestion, and to give effect
thereto brought forward the Union Immigra-
tion Bill in 1911, which while repealing the old
law did not annul the racial distinction,
and further took away several rights
from the residents of the coast districts — the
very thing deprecated by the Imperial
Government. This bill was naturally unaccep-
table to the Indian Community and finally
was not passed. An understanding however
was arrived at by which the passive resistors
agreed to suspend their movement, and the
authorities agreed to introduce satisfactory
legislation in 1912, meanwhile administering
the law as though it had been already altered.
The measure of 1912 was however no better
and the truce was extended for one more year.
It was then that Mr. Gandhi invited the late
Mr. Gokhale to South Africa to study the
whole situation on the spot, and the latter with
the full approval of the Indian and Imperial
Governments sailed for that country and
arrived at Capetown on 22nd October, 19 L2.
He stayed for about three weeks and toured
the whole country visiting every important
city. Everywhere he was received with signal
honour, not merely by the Indian community
xlvii
.17. K. Gandhi
but also by the colonial authorities themselves,
and succeeded in making a great impression
by that sweet reasonableness for which he
was so well-known. He interviewed the
Union ministers and secured from them the
promise of a satisfactory settlement, and
amongst other things the repeal of the £3 tax
which every ex-indentured Indian man and
woman had to pay in Natal, and to which
reference has been made already. Things
seemed to augur well for the future and hope
began to revive where despair had reigned
before.
A fresh and extraordinary complication was
now introduced into the situation in the shape
of a judicial decision of the Union Court
which declared all Ijidian marriages to be
null and void under the law of the Union.
The consternation into which it plunged the
entire Indian Community is imagined than
described. When the long-expected legisla-
tion was at last introduced into the Union
Parliament in 1913, it was evident that it was
merely tinkering with the whole problem
without any attempt at solving it in a liberal
or large-hearted manner. Warnings were
accordingly given and representations made
xlviii
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A Sketch of His Life and Career
to the authorities by the Indian leaders but
to no purpose. A few amendments were
made in the original bill but the Act
as passed was absolutely inadequate
to meet the requirements of the situation. -
At this juncture a deputation was sent
to England to bring home to the Imperial
authorities and the British public the profound
danger of the whole position, and the certainty
that if timely steps were not taken it would
lead to the revival of passive resistance on
a vastly enlarged scale. But it was in vain.
It required still an appalling amount of
suffering before the conscience of the Union
could at all be moved.
The struggle accordingly recommenced with
a grimness and determination which threw
into the shade even the previous campaigns.
The principal planks of the passive resister
this time were, the abolition of the £3 tax, the
complete eradication of the racial bar as a
principle of legislation, the recognition of the
validity of Indian marriages, the right of entry
into Cape Colony of all South Africa-born
Indians, and the sympathetic and equitable
administration of all laws affecting the British
Indian immigrant.
xlix
M. K. Gandhi
Of the incidents of this final stage of the
struggle one can speak only in terms of bated
breath. For it had been decreed that the
baptism of fire through which the Indian
Community had been passing during these long
years should now be bestowed on the only two
classes which had hitherto remained outside
it— the women and the indentured labourer.
The Indian women in the Transvaal had
indeed already played a memorable part, by
the fine understanding they had displayed
of the purposes of the whole movement, and by
the whole-hearted sympathy and encourage-
ment which they had given to their men-folk.
But the time had now come for the women
themselves to step into the flaming breach.
Like an arrow in the heart did they receive
the judicial dictum which pronounced their
marriages to be invalid. Or rather it was that
the entrance of this arrow was but the occasion
for the opening of the flood-gates of that
idealism of which woman's heart is the chosen
home. And in what a deluge did it thereafter
pour ! How many hundreds were the Indian
women that sanctified the prison-houses of
South Africa ! And how superb was the
intoxication that came upon the men-folk as
1 "
A Sketch of His Life and Career
they beheld their own mothers, wives and
sisters mock at the crucifixion of the body !
Never before in the history of the world had
a more signal proof been given of the power
of the human soul to defy the arrayed forces
of wickedness and embrace suffering in the
battle for honour and self-respect. The
splendour and ecstasy of it all will last
through the ages.
. The account given by Mrs. Polak in the
pages of ' Indian Opinion ' of the part played
by women in the struggle is so interesting
that it deserves to be quoted in full. She
writes : —
" Ruskin has said : " A woman's duty is two-
fold, her duty to her home and her duty to the
State." Scarcely an Indian woman in South
Africa has read Ruskin's words, probably
never heard of them, but the spirit of truth
manifests itself in many ways and places, and
the Indian women of South Africa intuitively
knew this as one of the true laws of life, and
their work showed that they performed their
greater duty accordingly. These women, with-
out any training for public life, accustomed to
the retirement of women of India, not versed
or read in the science of sociology, just patient,
li
M. K. Gandhi
dutiful wives, mothers, and daughters of a
struggling class of workers, in an hour of need,
moved by the spirit of a larger life, took up
their duty to their country, and served it
with that heroism of which such women alone
are capable.
It is said so often that woman does not
reason, and perhaps it is a charge largely true,,
but where the elementary laws of being are
concerned, woman follows a surer path than
any dictated by reason, and sooner or later
gets to her goal. Every reform movement has
shown that, from the moment women stand
side by side with men in the maintenance of
a principle, however dimly understood by
them, tke spirit of the movement grows, is
crystallised, and success to the movement is
assured.
The Western is so accustomed to think of
the Indian woman as one living in retirement,
without any broad thought and without any
interest in public affairs, that it must have
come with a shock of surprise to learn that
many Indian women, some with babies in
their arms, some expecting babies to be born
to them, and some quite young girls, were
Hi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
leaving their homes and taking part in all the
hardships of the Passive Resistance campaign.
The last phase of the fight, and the one
through which to-day we rejoice in peace, was
practically led in the early stages by a small
band of women from Natal, who challenged
prison to vindicate their right to the legal
recognition of their wifehood, and a similar
small band of women from Johannesburg.
The women from Natal, all of them wives of
wellknown members of the Indian community,
travelled up to Volksrust, were arrested and
sentenced to three months' hard labour, and
were the first of hundreds to go to gaol. The
women from the Transvaal travelled down the
line, taking in the mines on their way, holding
meetings and calling upon the men to refuse
to work and to die rather than live as slaves^
and at the call of these women, thousands laid
down their tools and went on strike. I think
it may safely be said that, but for the early
work of these brave women, during the middle
of last year, the wonderful response to the call
of honour and country might never have taken
place. About six weeks after the Transvaal
women left, they also were arrested, and a
similar sentence to that passed upon the
• liii
D
M. K. Gandhi
women of Natal was passed upon them, and
they were forcibly vaccinated. So these brave
women were shut away from life, but the fight
now so splendidly begun went on.
A few days after the release of these last
women, two gave birth to children, and
another, a young girl of about twenty, passed
away, and a third hovered between life and
death for months, but the goal was won.
To-day, all these women are back in their
homes and are busy in the usual routine of an
Indian woman's life. There is absolutely none
of the pride of heroism about them. They are
the same patient, dutiful women that India
has produced for centuries ; yet they endured
the publicity, and no one who does not know
India can understand how terrible to the
Indian woman such publicity is. They endured
the physical hardship, the mental sorrow, the
heartache; for nearly all who did not take
young children with them left young ones
at home, endured hunger strikes, because they
were deprived of fat to eat and sandals to put
on — endured it all without harshness or bitter-
ness. India has many things to be proud of,
but of none more than the part the Indian
liv
A Sketch of His Life and Career
women of South Africa took in the uplifting
and recognition of a people here despised."
The foregoing account refers to a strike on
the coal-mines. The organization of a strike
of the Indentured labourers was part and
parcel of the scheme of the leaders for the
iinal campaign. This strike and the famous
march of the strikers to the Transvaal, we
cannot better describe than in the words of an
article entitled " That Wonderful March "
in that self-same journal. It runs : —
" The question of the repeal of the £3 tax
had become urgent already in 1908 and 1909,
when an organisation had been formed for the
purpose of securing it, and petitions widely
signed had been sent to the then Natal
Parliament, without other result than the
passing of the ineffective Act of 1910, giving
magistrates discretion — which some used,
while others did not — to exempt certain classes
of women in certain circumstances.
During his campaign in India, in 1909-10
and 1911-12, and his visit to England in 1911,
Mr. Polak had pressed the question upon the
attention of the people and Government of
India and the British public, who had hitherto
' 1v
M. K. Gandhi
been ignorant as to the harsh incidence of the
tax and grim misery that it entailed.
Accordingly, when the Hon. Mr. Gokhale
came to South Africa in .1912, and set himself
to the task of examining Indian grievances on
the spot, he immediately seized upon the tax
as one that required and was capable of
immediate remedy, and he, therefore, as he
has told us, made special representations on
the subject at the meeting of Ministers at
Pretoria, when, he is positive, a definite
undertakiag was given him to repeal the tax..
His efforts to that end had already been
foreshadowed whilst he had travelled through
the Union, and he had given assurances to
vast crowds of those liable to the tax that
he would not rest until he had secured its
repeal, a resolve that had been much
encouraged by the sympathetic speeches and
conversations of prominent Natalians, both at
the Durban banquet and at the subsequent
Chamber of Commerce meeting. And these
promises, fortified by the knowledge of what
had transpir^d at Pretoria, Mr. Gandhi, upon
his return from Zanzibar, whither he had
accompanied Mr. Gokhale, repeated again and
Ivi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
again in a responsible manner, to large
numbers of those affected by the tax.
When, therefore, in 1913, a measure was
introduced into the Union Parliament, at the
end of the session, exempting women only
from its operation, but requiring them to take
out an annual licence, a message was sent to
Mr. Gokhale in India requiring whether the
promise of repeal had been limited to women.
The reply was that it applied to all who were
affected by the tax, and the Bill was promptly
■killed by Mr. Meyler and the late Sir David
Hunter, who protested against its further pro-
gress, as they felt convinced that to pass it
would be to delay total repeal indefinitely.
Up to this time there had been no denial by the
Government of the promise alleged.
At the rising of Parliament, Mr. Gandhi
entered into fresh negotiations with the Union
Government, reminding them of the promise,
and asking for a definite undertaking of repeal
of the tax in 1914. Meanwhile, in England,
Mr. Polak,who had gone there at Mr. Gokhale's
instance, had made it clear to the Imperial
authorities and the British public that, whilst
the repeal of the £3 tax had not previously
formed part of. the Passive Resisters' demands,
Ivii
M. K. Gandhi
the question had now become so acute, and
Indian public feeling in South Africa had
become so intense owing to what was regardea
as the Union Government's breach of faith
that, in the unfortunate event of the revival of
the struggle, repeal of the tax would be made
part and parcel of it. Lord Arapthill, too,
after consulting with Mr. Gokhale, referred
in explicit terms to the promise of repeal, in a
portentous speech in the House of Lords. In
the result, the Union Government declined to
give an undertaking on the subject, though
they still did not deny the promise, and the
question therefore, formed one of the five points
of Passive Resistance in Mr. A. M. Cachalia's
letter of the 12th September, announcing the
revival of the struggle. At the same time,
Mr. Gokhale, in the face of the objections of
his medical advisers, hurried back to India to
rouse the Government and his fellow-country-
men to action.
On September 28, and before any important
activity had developed Mr. Gandhi addressed
to the Secretary for the Interior a letter con-
taining the following warning and appeal : —
" I know also what responsibility lies on
my shoulders in advising such a momentou?r
Iviii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
step, but I feel that it is not possible for me to
refrain from advising a step which I consider
to be necessary, to be of educational value,
and, in the end, to be valuable both to the
Indian community and to the State. This
step consists in actively, persistently, and
continuously asking those who are liable to
pay the £3 tax to decline to do so and to suffer
the penalties for non-payment, and what is
more important, in asking those who are now
serving indenture and who will, therefore, be
liable to pay the £3 Tax upon the completion
of their indenture, to strike work until the tax
is withdrawn. I feel that in view of Lord
Ampthill's declaration in the House of Lords,
evidently with the approval of Mr. Gokhale,
as to the definite promise made by the Govern-
ment and repeated to Lord Gladstone, this
advice to indentured Indians would be fully
justified. . . . Can I not even now, whilst in
the midst of the struggle, appeal to General
Smuts and ask him to reconsider his decision
.... on the question of the £3 tax ? " The
letter was shown to General Smuts who
vouchsafed no reply, but who also did not even
then repudiate the promise, nor did he warn
the employers, of the intentions of the Passive
' lix
M. K. Gandhi
Resistance leaders. A fortnight later, in a
statement circulated by Router's Agency
throughout the South African press, it was
clearly stated that " the movement will also
consist in advising indentured Indians to
suspend work until the £3 Tax is removed.
The indentured Indians will not be invited to
join the general struggle." The public thus
received ample warning of what was toward.
The Indian women who had joined the
struggle as a protest against the refusal of the
Government to legalise Indian marriages and
who, as Passive Resisters, had unsuccessfully
sought imprisonment at Vereeniging, Germis-
ton and Volksrust, were allowed to pass into
Natal unmolested, and the first steps taken to
"call out " the Indians on the coal-mines in the
northern part of the Province were due to the
courage and devotion of these women, whose
appearance there was almost in the nature
of an accident. Under the guidance of
Mr. C. K. T. Naidoo, they made Newcastle
their headquarters, and, travelling from mine
to mine, they made eloquent appeal to the
Indian labourers and their families to cease
work until an assurance of repeal of the tax
was given by the Government. The response
Ix
A Sketch of His Life and Career
was imraediafce and general. Mine after mine
was closed down, as the Indian labourers
refused to work, and a state of panic ensued
amongst the employers, who at first continued
to give rations as an inducement to their
employees to remain on the mines. A hurried
conference of mine-ov/ners was held at
Durban, at which Mr. Gandhi was invited
to be present, and he then explained the
situation and referred to the promise made
to Mr. Gokhale. He pointed out that the
labourers were being asked to strike only
so long as the £3 Tax was unrepealed, and
because it had been alleged— an allegation
that was subsequently discovered to be well-
founded — that the employers were opposed to
repeal. The conference telegraphed to General
Smuts inquiring about the promise, which
was denied by him and by General Botha,
for the first time ; but it is significant that the
late Mr. Fischer, who was also present at the
meeting with the Ministers, did not repudiate
it, though his physical condition did not
preclude his doing so. Mr. Gokhale at once
cabled, stating that a promise of repeal had
undoubtedly been made to him, and, as a
result of the hostile attitude now taken up by
' Ixi
M. K. Gandhi
the Government and by the employers, the
labourers were invited to leave the mines,
where improper influences were being used to
induce them to return to work.
Mr. Gandhi placed himself at the head of a
vast commissariat organisation, and, together
with a small body of assistants, chief of whom
was Mr. Albert Christopher, and with the
co-operation of Mr. Kallenbach, the Indians — ■
men, women and children — were fed and
maintained at Newcastle, where they flocked
by the hundred, coming by road and rail as
fast as they could leave the mines, with the
result that the latter, from Dundee and
Ladysmith to Newcastle, were denuded of
their labour supply. It was a pathetic and
yet a cheering sight to watch these patient
hundreds plodding slowly along muddy roads,
in inclement weather, to the Newcastle centre,
where they lived on a handful of rice, bread,
and sugar a day, in the open, without shelter,,
without cooking accommodation beyond what
they improvised on the bare veld, without
comfort of any kind. But they were buoyed
up with a great hope, and they had an
inspiring leader. Mr. Kallenbach, too, fought
their battles for them with the Newcastle
Ixii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
municipality and magistracy, and later they
saw how Mr. Gandhi shared their daily life
and hardships, nursed the sick, and fed the
hungry. They knew that the Indian women,
who had urged them to strike, were cheerfully
suffering imprisonment with hard labour, for
their sake, and they felt in honour bound to
struggle on until they had secured the repeal
of the tax that weighed so heavily upon so
many of them. And the women amongst
them were no less heroic than the men. One
mother, whose little child died of exposure
on the road to Newcastle, was heard to say :
"We must not pine for the dead; it is the
living for which we must work." Such a spirit
ensured ultimate success.
As their members swelled, it was felt that
the only possible method of compelling the
Union Government to realise their responsibi-
lities and assume charge was to march the
whole of the strikers into the Transvaal, there
to court arrest and imprisonment, and it was
accordingly decided to concentrate at Charles-
town, the border village, where Messrs.
Vallibhai and Mukdoom rendered great service.
At the head of a large " army," therefore,
Mr. Gandhi marched there on October SOth^
' Ixiii
M K. Gandhi
but just before the march commenced, a
number of strikers were arrested and removed
to the gaols after sentence of imprisonment.
Day by day hundreds more marched to or
entrained for Charlestown, where a vast
camp was organised, under the sanitary
control of the District Health Officer, Dr.
Briscoe, and rations, that were pouring in
from Durban and Johannesburg Indian
merchants, to which were added supplies
purchased with money that was being cabled
in large sums from India, were daily
distributed to a gathering of men, women and
children that numbered finally over 3,000.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gandhi had telegraphed
the intentions of the " invaders " to the
Government, who apparently took no notice of
the warning. Simultaneously, efforts were
made, without success, by the Deputy
Protector to induce the strikers to return to
work, and large batches of them were arrested,
and eventually imprisoned.
A.t last, a week after the notification, Mr.
Gandhi commenced the now famous "invasion"
of the Transvaal, with a following of over
2,000. The women and children were left
behind at Charlestown, in charge of Miss
Ixiv ■
A Sketch of His Life and Career
Schlesin and Mr. Kallenbach, who worked
day and night to make their lot somewhat
easier. At the border, the "army" came to
a stand, whilst Mr. Gandhi, who was near the
rear, having remained behind to make final
arrangements, came forward to interview the-
police officer who, with a small patrol, was on
duty at the gate of entry. Whilst these
preliminaries were in train, the main body
became impatient, and a mass of cheering,
shouting Indians, clad in ragged clothes, and
bearing their pitifully small belongings upon
their heads, swarmed through the streets of
Volksrust, determined to do or die, brushing
the handful of police aside like so many
helpless and insignificant atoms. They
encamped on the farther side of the town, and
the great march had commenced. The
programme was to march, at the rate of some
25 miles a day, until the men were arrested, or
Tolstoy Farm, at Lawley, near Johannesburg,
was reached, and the Government were
informed of each stopping-place. Eight days
were set aside to reach their destination,
unless they were earlier arrested, and, from
the swing and energy of their marching, it was
plain that a phenomenal feat was being per-
Ixv
^1. K. Gandhi
formed by men, many of them heavily
burdened, unused to conditions of " war," but
accustomed to hard and simple life, and on a
meagre and unusual diet. That night they
reached Palmford, where special accommoda-
tion was offered to Mr. Gandhi, who, however,
refused to accept hospitality which his humbler
countrymen could not share.
Meanwhile, the Government were not
altogether idle, but with that stupidity which
almost invariably characterises governments
in similiar emergencies, they did the wrong
thing, and issued a warrant for the arrest of
Mr. Gandhi, hoping thus to demoralise the
forces that he was leading. Mr. Gandhi sur-
rendered to the warrant of Palmford, having, at
the request of the authorities, pointed out some
of his own followers to give evidence for him,
as the Crown would not otherwise have been
able to prove its case against him ! He was
motored swiftly to Volksrust, but the " army "
silently and grimly pursued its march undeter-
red by the loss of its revered leader. At Volks-
rust, Mr. Gandhi was charged with breach of
the Immigration Act and applied for bail, as he
was in charge of large numbers of men entirely
dependent upon him, and his application was
Ixvi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
granted. Realising, however, the probable risks
that would ensue if the people were left leader-
less, he addressed the following telegram to
the Minister of the Interior:
" Whilst I appreciate the fact of Govern-
ment having at last arrested prime mover in
passive resistance struggle, cannot help re-
marking that from point view humanity
moment chosen most unfortunate. Government
probably know that marchers include 122
women, 50 tender children, all voluntarily
marching on starvation rations without provi-
sion for shelter during stages. Tearing me
away under such circumstances from them is
violation all considerations justice. When
arrested last night, left men without informing
them. They might become infuriated. I,
therefore, ask either that I may be allowed
continue march with men, or Government send
them by rail Tolstoy Farm and provide full
rations for them. Leaving them without one
in whom they have confidence, and without
Government making provision for them, is, in
my opinion, an act from which I hope on
reconsideration Government will recoil. If
untoward incidents happen during further pro-
gress march, or if deaths occur, especially
■ Ixvii
M. K. Gandhi
amongst women with babies in arms, responsi-
bility will be Government's," No reply was
returned to this humane appeal, but it was
understood that the Government had no inten-
tion of assuming charge of this large body of
men, women and children. Writing at the time
of Mr. Gandhi's arrest, the special correspon-
dent of the Natal Mercurij sent his paper the
following vivid description of the condi-
tions prevailing both then and earlier at
Charlestown : —
" We arrived at Palmford about 8-30 P.M. last
night, and found them all sleeping in the veld,
just below the station. Many of them were
feeling the cold severely ... I visited Char-
lestown twice on the 5th (the day before the
march commenced). The whole appearance of
the town resembled nothing but an Indian
bazaar. The town was crowded with Indians
. . . No sanitary arrangements were made at
first, and the position from a health point of
view was awful ; but later Mr. Gandhi assisted
the municipal officials, and the position was
greatly improved. I found Mr, Gandhi at the
back of an Indian store, in the yard, serving
out curry and rice to his followers, who march-
ed up, and each man received his quota. One
Ixviii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
baker sold 5,000 loaves to the Indians in one
day."
Mr. Gandhi, upon his release on bail, swiftly-
motored back to his followers, rejoining them
on the march, which proceeded quietly as far
as Paardeberg, where the remaining women
and children were left behind in charge of a
few of the men, who had become footsore. The
main body reached Standerton on the morning
of the 8th, where a number of strikers were
arrested by their compound managers, assisted
by a few police, and entrained for Natal. A.nd
here, too, Mr. Gandhi was re-arrested on the
same charge as before. He again requested bail,
and, owing to the attitude of the strikers, who
persistently refused to move from the Court
precincts until their leader was restored to
them, his request was granted, and the march
was resumed immediately.
Sunday, the 9th, was an historic day. With
a view to a final consultation with him before
leaving for India, Mr. Polak had telegraphed
to Mr. Gandhi, saying that he was joining
him, and had received a wire suggesting
Greylingstad as the meeting place, but with
the warning that he (Mr. Polak) might be
arrested if he game. He joined the column at
Ixix
£
M. K. Gandhi
a small place named Teakworth, a few miles
on the Standerton side of Greylingstad. The
*' army," spread along the road for a distance
of some three miles, was led by a small,
limping, bent, but dogged man, coarsely
dressed, and using a staff, with a serene and
peaceful countenance, however, and a look
of sureness and content. That was Gandhi,
the principal Passive Resister, The two
friends greeted each other, and eagerly
exchanged news. Whilst thus engaged, and
when about an hour distant from Grey-
lingstad, not far ahead was seen a Cape cart,
and walking rapidly towards them were a
couple of police officers, behind whom came
Mr. M. Chamney, the Principal Immigration
Officer of the Transvaal. Realising the
pacific nature of the demonstration and of the
Indian leader's intentions, Mr, Chamney had
complimented Mr. Gandhi by undertaking his
arrest upon a warrant issued under the Natal
Indenture Law with no stronger support
than this. The Cape cart, with its precious
freighti drove swiftly away, and the
column resumed its march quietly, under
the leadership of Mr. Polak, who had at
once assumed the responsibility, preceded
ixx
A Sketch of His Life and Career
by the two mounted policemen. A few minutes
later, Messrs. Cachalia and Bhyat, who,
together with Mr. Badat of Volksrust, were in
charge of the commissariat arrangements, of
which Mr. Polak was in entire ignorance,
joined the column, having accidentally missed
it in on another road, and they at once
proceeded to Balfour, where it was due next
morning and where food supplies were
awaiting its arrival. The evening was fine
and clear, and the cooking-fires that were lit
from end to end of the veldt offered a bright and
sparkling spectacle. Gradually, the buzz and
throb of conversation sank, as sleep fell upon
the camp. The night, however, was dismal
and wretched, a cold wind howled mournfully
down from the neighbouring hills, and a drizzle
of rain added to the discomfort of the shelter-
less throng.
But the night was portentous, for it' was
decreed that the march should end on the
morrow, though of this the marchers were as
yet unware. At four in the morning it was
resumed, and the moving mass of heroic men
swung forward into their stride, covering the
ground at a splendid pace, and, laden as they
were, without waggons and without food, they
Ixxi
M. K. Gandhi
travelled the distance between Greylingstad'
and Balfour, 13 miles, in 3)^ hours. Upon>
reaching the latter place, without any police
escort, just before 9 a.m., it became evident
that the last stage had been reached, for three
special trains were drawn up at the station to-
take back the strikers to Natal. Mr. Polak
was approached by the Police Officer in charge
of the arrangements, and by Mr. Chamney, to
co-operate with them in effecting the arrest of
the "army," and upon receiving their assur-
ance that the men were really to be sent to
Natal, where criminal proceedings were await-
ing them, he replied that he would gladly do so
as the whole object of the march had thus been
fulfilled, and his own responsibility ceased. At
the same time, he offered himself for arrest
also, but he was informed that the Government
did not desire this. He, however, warned the
officials that, in Mr. Gandhi's enforced ab-
sence, it might be difficult for him to induce
compliance with their desire, as but few of the
men had ever seen him before. Mr. Gandhi,,
however, was passing through from Heideberg,
en route for Dundee, where he was subsequent-
ly imprisoned, and sent a message urging the
people quietly to surrender.
Ixxii '
A Sketch of His Life and Career
They were fed as rapidly as food could be
•supplied to them — a handful of rice and
bread each — and then Mr. Chamney, having
questioned them as to their proofs of rights of
residence, proclaimed them prohibited immi-
grants. For the moment, chaos prevailed, as a
number of stalwarts, who had set their hearts
upon reaching Johannesburg, called upon the
multitude to march forward, but, instantly
realising the danger of this movement, which,
whilst it would have resulted in bloodshed,
would have swept aside the small band of
twenty-five policemen in the twinkling of
an eye, and let loose an uncontrolled body
of men to roam over the Transvaal, who would
not afterwards probably have been located,
Mr. Polak, followed by Messrs. Cachalia and
Ehyat, rushed to the head of the column and
implored the people to remember that their
object, as passive resisters, was not Johan-
nesburg but gaol, and eventually peace was
restored. Gradually, and in small groups, the
men entrained, Mr. Polak accompanying the
first train as far as Charlestown, where he
was shortly afterwards arrested. Here, the
strikers having been locked up without food or
water for eight hours, the trains were not
Ixxiii
M. K. Gandhi
allowed to remain more than a couple of
minutes, the platform being occupied by
armed police, who kept back the women that
had remained there and now urged their men-
folk, with tears in their eyes and choking
voices, not to mind them but to remain true
to their duty. And slowly the trains steamed
south, bearing nearly two thousand humble
heroes to a bitter fate and a shameful experi-
ence, but firm in the knowledge that they had
done what they had set out to do, and that
the repeal of the hated tax was now certain.
The great and impressive march was over.
The Times has since declared that it ?-nust
live in memory as one of the most remarkable
manifestations in history of the spirit of
Passive Resistance. It had achieved all that
its organisers, in their fondest dreams, had
hoped for it. It had proclaimed, as nothing
else could have done, the stubborn endurance,
the dogged persistency, the grim tenacity, the
stern determination, the magnificent self-
sacrifice of the Passive Resisters. And it
assured success. It was not a defeat, as the
shallow critics had at the time proclaimed it.
Had the strikers not exercised, under the
guidance of trusted leaders,- immense self-
Ixxiv
A Sketch of His Life and Career
control — there was no pillage, no disorder, no
violence — all the forces that the Government
had brought against them could not have
prevented their swarming over the Transvaal.
But it was the glorious ending of a peaceful
demonstration of workers determined upon
achieving freedom for themselves, their wives,
their children. A splendid victory for Truth
had been won. The honour of the Indian
Motherland had been vindicated. Mr.
Gokhale's word had been made good.
And the sign of this is to be found in the
work of Messrs. Andrews and Pearson, the
report of the Commission, its acceptance by
the Government, the debates in Parliament,
and the passing of Act 22 of 1914, repealing
the £3 Tax for ever and granting freedom of
residence in Natal to those who choose to
remain unindentured. The real victory is that
of the soul-force of the marchers, starving,
weary, but buoyed up with unconquerable
hope, over the brute-force of those who had
declared their intention at all costs to main-
tain them in a condition of perpetual helotage."
Thus ended the great march. The
majesty of the law was once more vindicated
by the arrest, trial and imprisonment of
Ixxv
M. K. Gandhi
thousands. Mr. Gandhi himself who, as the
account quoted above mentions, had been
arrested at Volksrust and released on bail
was subsequently tried and sentenced to
fifteen months. At the trial he delivered
himself as follows : —
Addressing the Court at Volksrust, Mr.
Gandhi said that he had given the Minister of
the Interior due notice of his intention to
cross the borderwith the prohibited immigrants,
and had informed the Immigration Officer at
Volksrust of the date of crossing. He assured
the Court that the present movement had
nothing whatever to do with the unlawful
entry of a single Indian for the purpose of
residence in the Transvaal. He might fairly
claim that during his whole career in the
Transvaal he had been actuated by a desire to
assist the Government in preventing surrepti-
tious entry and unlawful settlement, but he
pleaded guilty to knowingly committing an
offence against the Section under which he
was charged. He was aware that his action
was fraught with the greatest risks and intense
personal suffering to his followers. He was
convinced that nothing short of much suffering
would move the conscience of the, Governor, or
Ixxvi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
of the inhabitants of the Union, of which, in
spite of this breach of the laws, he claimed to
be a sane and law-abiding citizen.
The strike on the coal-mines had meanwhile
spread to the sugar plantations in Natal. A.
savage attempt was made to suppress it and
in the attempt some of the strikers were shot
dead, and several injured.
The cup of suffering was now full to the
brim. Resentment in India had reached
white heat. The Government of India were
alarmed at the situation. And Lord Hardinge
then Viceroy of India, in his famous speech at
Madras, placed himself at the head of Indian
public opinion and asked for the appointment
of a commission to institute a searching
enquiry into the whole matter. The Imperial
Authorities also bestirred themselves as they
had never done before. And the authors
of the policy which had led to such incalcu-
lable misery and bitterness now for the first
time showed likewise unmistakable signs of
relenting by acceding to the demand for the
commission of enquiry. But when it was
actually constituted with Sir William Solomon
as President, its composition rendered it so
dubious that the Indian leaders resolved to
Ixxvii
M. K. Gandhi
ignore it altogether. It was at this crisis-
of affairs that the well-known missionary
gentlemen, the Rev. Messrs. Andrews and
Pearson, true children of the Man of Sorrows
paid a visit to South Africa and by their
persistent endeavours in influential circles
were able to diffuse a healing spirit. All is
well that ends well. The findings of the
Solomon commission were favourable to the
Indian community on all points referred to it
for report. Its recomraendiations were endorsed
without reservation by the Union Government
and given effect to by the subsequent passing
of the Indians' Relief Act. This gave satisfac-
tion to the Indian Community and Mr. Gandhi
formally announced the closing of the struggle.
It will be interesting at this stage to take
stock of the results achieved by the concen-
trated suffering of eight long years. But we
shall miss its significance if we do not grasp'
clearly at the outset that the battle was from
first to last a moral and spiritual one, and was
waged not for the compassing of material ends
but for the vindication of manhood. And
from this point of view it surely realised its
purpose in a measure that the great prota-
gonists of the movement themselves could not
Ixxviii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
at first have dreamed of. The struggle was
the means, the struggle was the end. To those
who have known the intensity of aspiration
and elevation of character that made the fight
possible the talk of material results must ever
seem a pitiful meanness. Such have received
the initiation of the highest self-knowledge.
They have been face to face with that mood of
the soul which sights nothing but endless
horizons of spiritual endeavour and achieve-
ment. They have known that the life of the
ordinary selfish man is not the real life but
that deep within everyone high or low sleeps
a heaven into which some day we shall all
awake.
Furthermore they have created for their
children and their children's children the
priceless memory of a heroic past. And dowm
to the remotest generations will linger the
pride of how the forefathers braved the fury of
the persecutor and staked their all for nothing
but their own honour. Nay shall not the
motherland herself treasure for ever the story
of the deeds of the humblest of her children in
a far away land as it has treasured the legend
of Rama and Sita, or that of the Pandava
brothers ? Will not humanity itself the world
Ixxix
M. K. Gandhi
over feel a quickened sense of its own divinity
as it peruses the same golden record ? Has not
another chapter been added to the world's
A-cts of the Apostles ?
Let us now reckon the tale of the martyrs to
whom it was given to give their lives to the
cause. There was that young girl, Valiamma
of whom Mr. Gandhi has said : " Simple-
minded in faith she had not the knowledge
that he had, she did not know what passive
resistance was, she did not know what it was
the community would gain, but she was
«imply taken up with unbounded enthusiasm
for her people — went to gaol, came out of it a
wreck, and within a few days died." There
were the two youths from the Tamil land,
J^agappan and Narayanaswamy — the former
died shortly after his release from prison, and
the latter at Delgoa Bay after having vainly
attempted to land in South Africa as already
told. And lastly there was the old man
Harbatsingh, a Hindustani stalwart who went
to gaol as a passive resister when he was
seventy-five, and who when questioned by
Mr. Gandhi why he had come, had answered.
"What does it matter? T know what you are
fighting for. You have not to pay the £3 tax
Ixxx
IXXX'I
rr", be ^
■r. '-1
A Sketch of His Life and Career
hut my fellow ex-indentured Indians have to
pay that tax, and what more glorious death
could I meet ?" And he met his death in the
gaol at Durban.
Coming lower down the scale, the feeling of
contempt for the ' coloured man ' which had so
long possessed the white settlers has yielded
place to one of respect and admiration. The
instinct of race-superiority has been knocked
out of at least the better mind of the Union.
The principle of differentiation on racial
grounds has disappeared. The livery of man-
hood shines in place of the badge of servitude.
Unfading lustre has been reflected upon the
name of the mother-country, and an invaluable
contribution made to the life of Indian
Nationalism.
And last but not least, the struggle has
removed the mask from the small emaciated
figure known to the world as Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, and set him before the
world in his true lineaments — a moral giant, a
spiritual hero, and a peerless soldier of God.
The material fruits of the struggle were
in themselves by no means inconsiderable.
The hated law which started the whole trouble
was repealed. ,The £3 tax has been abolished.
Ixxxi
M. K. Gandhi
The recognition of Indian marriages has been
secured. The system of indentured immi-
gration has been put an end to. And most
important of all, the passing of further laws
intended to drive out the Indians from South
Africa, which would certainly have followed,
was nipped in the bud. But of none of these
gains could it be said that it was wholly
material.
There are still great disabilities under which
the Indian resident of the Union has to labour.
These we shall enumerate in the words of
Mr. Gandhi himself : " There was still the
gold law which had many a sting in it. There
was still the Licensing laws throughout the
Union which also contained many a sting.
There was still a matter which the colonial-
born Indians could not understand or
appreciate, namely, the water-tight compart-
ments in which they had to live ; whilst
there was free inter-communication and
inter-migration between the provinces for the
Europeans, Indians had to be cooped up in
their respective provinces. Then there was
undue restraint on their trading activity.
There was the prohibition as to their holding
landed property in the Transvaal which was
Ixxxii
A Sketch of His Life and Career
degrading and all these things took Indians
into all sorts of undesirable channels." Further
jfche Indians have yet to be admitted to the
political franchise. The sympathy which takes
an equal interest in all classes of the ruled is
still far distant. And lastly the practical
stoppage of immigration from India has
deprived the South African Indians of that
opportunity of living intercourse with the
mother country which he cannot but value so
highly. These and like wrongs will have to
be set right in the future, God grant without
the necessity of similar struggles !
The sense of truimph and rejoicing which
marked the closing of the memorable struggle
was mingled by the sadness of the thought
that the great central figure, the genius and
inspirer of the whole movement, the redeemer
and Avatar of the Indian community in South
Africa was soon to depart to the motherland
for ever. Heightened a thousandfold was the
pathos of farewell which in this case is best
left to the imagination. His mission accom-
plished, the conquering hero returned to his
native land in the faith, as he has said, that
" it is in India that the nearest approach to
perfection is most possible."
Ixxxiii
M. K. Gandhi
The welcome accorded to Mr. Gandhi on his
return home, was characterised by all the
warmth, affection, anddelicate reverence which
India alone of all lands knows to offer to the
great of soul. Since his return to this country
he has been mainly devoting himself to a
personal study and comprehension of the pro-
blems with which a great and ancient civilisa-
tion in process of transition to a new order
necessarily teems. For this purpose, he has
been going about from place to place, making
the acquaintance of people of all grades and
conditions, and coming into contact with the
leaders of thought and activity. A man's
character is written in his slightest acts and
when during the early days of his arrival in
this country, he was seen alighting from a
third class compartment, at Howrah station,
while the elite of Calcutta, assembled on th&
platform, were making a search for him in the
first and second-class compartments, almost
a sensation was caused. This was no vanity
of humility on his part but proceeded from the
firm resolve not to stain himself by any luxury
which is not accessible to the poorest in the
land. It was simply that passionate deter-
mination to one himself with the sorrows of
Ixxxiv
A Sketch of His Life and Career
the lowest and meanest of which his daily life
is so eloquent an expression. And recently, he
has become the fiery champion of the woes of
the third-class passenger ! In his eyes there is
no wrong so trivial as to be unworthy of his
earnest attention and striving. Such is the spirit
that he has brought to the task of nation-
making in this land.
There was again that incident at the opening
of the Hindu University, when the platform
was crowded with Rajahs and Maharajahs,and
Mr. Gandhi made a speech at which several
people left the meeting construing his words to
be disloyal. It was sheer misunderstanding, as
it afterwards turned out, of the spirit of a man
whose whole life is a consuming effort to
throw out of himself the very seed of hatred
and every slightest motion of mind or heart
which could have the shadow of any reaction
of evil.
The Champaran incident is still fresh in the
mind of the public and requires no elabora-
tion. He had gone there on invitation to
undertake an enquiry as to the conditions of
the labourers in the Indigo plantations and
the treatment meted out to them by their
Ixxxv
M. K. Gandhi
employers. The District Magistrate of Chara-
paran took it into his head that his presence
was a serious danger to the district and would
lead to a breach of the peace. And he had an
order served upon Mr. Gandhi to the effect
that the latter was to leave the district by the
'next available train.' Mr. Gandhi replied
that he had come there out of a sense of duty
and would stay and submit to the penalty of
disobedience. At the trial that followed he
simply pleaded guilty, and made a statement
that he was faced by a conflict of duty, the
duty of obeying the law and the duty of
enquiry upon which he had come, and that
under the circumstances he could only throw
the responsibility of removing him on the
administration. The Magistrate postponed
judgment till some hours later in the day, and
at the interview with the District Magistrate
the same day he undertook not to go out to
the village till instructions were received from
the provincial administration. The case was
adjourned to some days later, and the higher
authorities subsequently issued instructions
not to proceed with the prosecution. Some of
the planters took the occasion to make a
rabid attack upon Mr. Gandhi, but the recently
Ixxxvi
A Sketch of His Life and Career
published report of the Champaran commission
of enquiry which was the immediate result of
his visit has amply justified him.
The idea of a monster petition to the autho-
rities from the people is not new in the
modern political history of India. But when
Mr. Gandhi revived the suggestion in connec-
tion with the Congress-Moslem -League scheme
of reform, the moment was most opportune
and the idea caught like magic. He himself
undertook the propaganda in his own province
of Gujarat and carried it out with characteristic
thoroughness. The true patriot can never be
idle, neither can he ever rest on his oars.
But far the most pregnant act of his in
India has been the establishment of the
Satiiagrohasrama. As its name signifies, it
stands for truth, truth as the highest considera-
tion of all, truth in thought, word and deed.
Its members have likewise to take the vow of
celibacy, the vow of control of the palate, the
vow of non-thieving, the vow of Swadeshi, the
vow of fearlessness, and the vow of redeeming
the untouchables in India. That education
should be imparted through the vernaculars is
also one of its cardinal principles. The
Ashrama is thus the nucleus of a great new
Ixxxvii
M. K. Gandhi
order for the perfecting of the individual and
the uplifting of the nation.
It is as the embodiment of Satyagvahay
as a veritable lamp burning upon the altar,
that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi stands
to-day before his countrymen. Truth-force or
love-force, as he himself has translated the
term into English, is to him the greatest of all
powers. In proportion as individuals and
nations alike fulfil the law of this power and fit
themselves into it they live and grow : the rest
is death. The delicacy of insight and vision, the
force of character, and all the virtues which
have thrown a mantle of splendour over his
name are but the fruit of this central realisa-
tion carried into action. It would be vain to
speculate as to what he would have become
had his life been cast in other places than
South Africa. God sends his chosen servants
to do the work appointed for them. It is ours
to recognize them.
Ixxxviii
SPEECHES AND WRITINGS
OF
M. K, GANDHI
GANDHI'S SENSE OF DUTY
[The following exhortation was addressed by
Mr, M. K. Gandhi to the Tamil community of South
Africa] : —
Remember that we are descendants, of
Prahlad and Sudhanva, both passive resisters
of the purest type. They disregarded the
dictates even of their parents, when they were
asked to deny God. They suffered extreme
torture rather than inflict suffering on their
persecutors. We in the Transvaal are being
called upon to deny God, in that we are
required to deny our manhood, go back upon
our oath, and accept an insult to our nation.
Shall we, in the present crisis, do less than our
fore-fathers ?
GANDHI'S CONFESSION OF FAITH
[The following is an extract from a letter addressed
by Mr. Gandhi to a friend in India] : —
(1) There is no impassable barrier between
East and West.
(2) There is no such thing as Western or
European civilizatioa but there is a modern
civilization, which is purely material. ^
(3) The people of Europe, before they were
touched by modern civilization had much in
common with the people of the East ; anyhow
the people of India, and even to-day Europeans
who are not touched by Modern civilization
are far better able to mix with Indians than
the offspring of that civilization.
(4) It is not the British people who are
ruling India, but it is modern civilisation,
through its railways, telegraph, telephone, and
almost every invention which has been claimed
to be a triumph of civilization.
(5) Bombay, Calcutta, and the other chief
cities of India are the real plague spots.
2
Gandhi's Confession of Faith
(6) If British rule was replaced to-morrow
by Indian rule based on modern methods, India
would be no better, except that she would
be able then to retain some of the money that
is drained away to England ; but then India
would only become a second or fifth edition of
Europe or America.
(7) East and West can only and really meet
when the West has thrown overboard modern
civilization, almost in its entirety. They can
also seemingly meet when East has also
adopted modern civilization, but that meeting
would be an armed truce, even as it is between,
say, Germany and England, both of which
nations are living in the Hall of Death in
order to avoid being devoured the one by
the other.
(8) It is simply impertinence for any man or
any body of men to begin or contemplate
reform of the whole world. To attempt to
do so by means of highly artificial and speedy
locomotion, is to attempt the impossible.
(9) Increase of material comforts, it may be
generally laid down, does not in any way
whatsoever conduce to moral growth.
(10) Medical Science is the concentrated
essence of Black Magic. Quackery is infinitely
3
M. K. Gandhi
preferable to what passes for high medical
skill.
(11) Hospitals are the instruments that the
Devil has been using for his own purpose,
in order to keep his hold on his Kingdom.
They perpetuate vice, misery, and degradation
and real slavery. I was entirely off the track
when I considered that I should receive a
medical training. It would be sinful for me in
any way whatsoever to take part in the
abominations that go on in the hospitals.
If there were no hospitals for venereal diseases,
or even for consumptives, we should have less
consumption, and less sexual vice amongst us.
(12) India's salvation consists in unlearning
what she has learnt during the past fifty years.
The railways, telegraphs, hospitals, lawyers,
doctors, and such like have all to go, and the
so-called upper classes have to learn to live
consciously and religiously and deliberately
the simple peasant life, knowing it to be a
life-giving, true happiness.
(13) India should wear no machine-made
clothing, whether it comes out of European
mills or Indian mills.
(14) England can help India to do this, and
then she will have justified her hold on India.
4
Gandhi's Confession of Faith
There seem to be many in England to-day who
think likewise.
(15) There was true wisdom in the sages of
old having so regulated society as to limit the
material condition of the people ; the rude
plough of perhaps five thousand years ago is
the plough of the husbandman to-day. Therein
lies salvation. People live long under such
■conditions, in comparative peace much greater
than Europe has enjoyed after having taken
up modern activity, and I feel that every
enlightened man, certainly every Englishman,
may, if he chooses learn this truth and act
according to it.
It is the true spirit of passive resistance
that has brought me to the above almost
definite conclusions. As a passive resister, I
am unconcerned whether such a gigantic,
reformation, shall I call it, can be brought
about among people who find their satisfaction
•from the present mad rush. If I realize the
truth of it, I should rejoice in following it, and
therefore I could not wait until the whole
body of people had commenced. A.11 of us
who think likewise have to take the necessary
step, and the rest, if we are in the right, must
follow. The theory is there : our practice will
. 5
M. K. Gandhi
have to approach it as much as possible*
Living in the midst of the rush, we may not
be able to shake ourselves free from all taint.
Every time I get into a railway car or use a
motor-bus, I know that I am doing violence to
my sense of what is right. I do not fear the
logical result on that basis. The visiting of
England is bad, and any communication
between South Africa and India by means of
ocean-grey-hounds is also bad, and so on.
You and I can, and may outgrow these things
in our present bodies, but the chief thing is to
put our theory right. You will be seeing there
all sorts and conditions of men. I therefore
feel that I should no longer withold from you
what I call the progressive step I have taken
mentally. If you agree with me, then it will
be your duty to tell the revolutionaries and
every body else that the freedom they want, or
they think they want, is not to be obtained by
killing people or doing violence, but by setting
themselves right, and by becoming and
remaining truly Indian. Then the British
rulers will be servants and not masters.
They will be trustees, and not tyrants, and
they will live in perfect peace with the whole
of the inhabitants of India. The future,
6 c
Gandhi's Confession of Faith
therefore, lies not with the British race, but
with the Indians themselves, and if they have
sufficient self-abnegation and abstemiousness,
they can make themselves free this very
moment, and when we have arrived in India
at the simplicity which is still ours largely
and which was ours entirely until a few
years ago, it will still be possible for the best
Indians and the best Europeans to see one
another throughout the length and breadth of
India, and act as the leaven. When there
was no rapid locomotion, teachers and
preachers went on foot, from one end of the
country to the other, braving all dangers, not
for pleasure, not for recruiting their health,
(though all that followed from their tramps)
but for the sake of humanity. Then were
Benares and other places of pilgrimage holy
cities, whereas to-day they are an abomination.
You will recollect you used to hate me for
talking to my children in Guzerati. I now
feel more and more convinced that I was
absolutely right in refusing to talk to them in
English. Fancy a Guzerati writing to another
Guzerati in English ! Which, as you would
properly say, he mispronounces, and writes
ungrammatically. I should certainly never
7
;i. K. Gandhi
commit the ludicrous blunders in writing in
Guzerati that I do in writing or speaking
in English. I think that when I speak in
English to an Indian or a Foreigner I in a
measure un-learn the language. If I want to
learn it well, and if I want to attune my ear to
it, I can only do so by talking to an English-
man and by listening to an Englishman
speaking.
GANDHI'S PLEA FOR THE SOUL
[The following is an extract from a letter of the
London correspondent of the Anirita Bazar Patrika,
summarising an address delivered by Mr. Gandhi
before the members of the Emerson Club and of the
Hamp^tead Branch of the Peace and Arbitration
Society whilst in London] : —
Mr. Gandhi turned to India, and spoke with
■enthusiasm of Rama, the victim of the
machinations of a woman choosing fourteen
years' exile rather than surrender; other
Orientals were mentioned, and then, through
the Doukhabors of to-day, he brought the
thoughts of the audience to the soul resistance
■of Indians versus brute force in South Africa.
He insisted that it was completely a mistake
to believe that Indians were incapable of
lengthened resistance for a principle ; in their
fearlessness of suffering they were second to
none in the world. Passive resistance had
been called a weapon of the weak, but
Mr. Gandhi maintained that it required courage
. 9
M. K. Gandhi
higher than that of a soldier on the battle-field,
which was often the impulse of the moment,
for passive resistance, was continuous and
sustained; it meant physical suffering. Some
people were inclined to think it too difficult to
be carried out to-day, but those who held that
idea were not moved by true courage. Again
referring to Oriental teaching, Mr. Gandhi
said that the teaching of the " Lord's Song "
was, from the beginning, the necessity of
fearlessness. He touched on the question of
physical force while insisting that it was not
thought of by Indians in the Transvaal. He
does not want to share in liberty for India that
is gained by violence and bloodshed, and insists
that no country is so capable as India of
wielding soul force. Mr. Gandhi did not
approve of the militant tactics of the suffra-
gates for the reason that they were
meeting body force with body force, and not
using the higher power of soul force ; violence
begot violence. He maintained, too, that the
association of Britain and India must be
a mutual benefit if India — eschewing violence
— did not depart from her proud position
of being the giver and the teacher of religion.
" If the world believes in the existence of
10 .
Gandhi's Plea for the Soul
the soul," he said in conclusion, " it must be
recognised that soul force is better than body
force : it is the sacred principle of love which
moves mountains. To us is the responsibility
of living out this sacred law ; we are not
concerned with results."
Mr. Gandhi protested against the mad rush
of to-day and, instead of blessing the means by
which modern science has made this mad rush
possible, that is, railways, motors, telegraph,
telephone, and even the coming flying machines,
he declared that they were diverting man's
thoughts from the main purpose of life ; bodily
comfort stood before soul growth ; man had no
time to-day even to know himself; he preferred
a newspaper or sport or other things rather
than to be left alone with himself for thought-
He claimed Ruskin as on his side in this
expression to protest against the drive and
hurry of modern civilisation. He did not
describe this development of material science
as exclusively British, but he considered that
its effect in India had been baneful in many
ways. He instanced the desecration of India's
holy places, which he said were no longer holy
for the "fatal facility" of locomotion had
brought to those places people whose only aim
. 11
31. K. Gandhi
was to defraud the unsophisticated ; such
people in the olden days when pilgrimages
meant long and wearisome walking through
jungles, crossing rivers, and encountering
many dangers, had not the stamina to reach
the goal. Pilgrimages in those days could
only be undertaken by the cream of society,
but they came to know each other ; the aim of
the holy places was to make India holy.
Plague and famine, which existed in pre-
British days were local then ; to-day, locomo-
tion had caused them to spread. To avoid the
calamity which intense materialism must
bring, Mr. Gandhi urged that India should go
back to her former holiness, which is not yet
lost. The contact with the West has awakened
her from the lethargy into which she had
sunk ; the new spirit, if properly directed,
would bring blessings to both nations and
to the world. If India adopted Western modern
civilisation as Japan had done, there must be
perpetual conflict and gasping between Briton
and Indian. If, on the other hand, India's
ancient civilisation can withstand this latest
assault, as it has withstood so many before,
and be, as of old, the religious teacher, the
spiritual guide, then there would be no
12 .
Gandhi's Plea for the Soul
impassable barrier between East and West.
Some circumstances exist, said Mr. Gandiii,
which we cannot understand ; but the main
purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly,
act rightly ; but the soul must languish when
we give all our thought to the body.
13
THE DUTIES OF BRITISH
CITIZENSHIP
I consider myself a lover of the British
Empire, a citizen (though voteless) of the
Transvaal, prepared to take my full share
in promoting the general well-being of the
country. And I claim it to be perfectly
honourable and consistent with the above
profession to advise ray countrymen not to
submit to the Asiatic Act, as being derogatory
to their manhood and offensive to their
religion. And I claim, too, that the method of
passive resistance adopted to combat the
mischief is the clearest and safest, because, if
the cause is not true, it is the resisters, and
they alone who suffer. I am perfectly aware
of the danger to good government, in a country
inhabited by many races unequally developed,
in an honest citizen advising resistance to
a law of the land. But T refuse to believe
in the infallibility of legislators, I do believe
that they are not always guided by generous or
even just sentiments in their dealings with
unrepresented classes. I venture to say that,
14
The Duties of British Citizenship
if passive resistance is generally accepted,
it will once and for ever avoid the contingency
of a terrible death-struggle and bloodshed
in the event (not impossible) of the natives
being exasperated by a stupid mistake of our
legislators.
It has been said that those who do not
like the law may leave the country. This is
all very well spoken from a cushioned chair,
but it is neither possible nor becoming for
men to leave their homes because they do not
subscribe to certain laws enacted against
them. The inlanders of the Boer regime
complained of harsh laws ; they, too, were
told that if they did not like them they could
retire from the country. Are Indians, who
are fighting for their self-respect, to slink
away from the country for fear of suffering
imprisonment or worse ? If I could help it,
nothing would remove Indians from the
country save brute force. It is no part of
a citizen's duty to pay blind obedience to
the laws imposed on him. And if my
countrymen believe in God and the existence
of the soul, then, while they may admit that
their bodies belong to the state to be imprisoned
and deported, their minds, their wills, and
15
M. K. Gandhi
their souls must ever remain free like the
birds of the air, and are beyond the reach
of the swiftest arrow. — {Indian Opinion).
16
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF
PASSIVE RESISTANCE
[The following is reproduced from the Golden
Number of the Indian Opinion, 1914] : —
I shall be at least far away from Phcenix,
if not actually in the Motherland, when this
Commemoration Issue is published. I would,
however, leave behind me my innermost
thoughts upon that which has made this
special issue necessary. Without Passive
Resistance, there would have been no richly
illustrated and important special issue of
Indian Opinion, which has, for the last eleven
years, in an unpretentious and humble manner,
endeavoured to serve my countrymen and
South Africa,a period covering the most critical
stage that they will perhaps ever have to
pass through. It marks the rise and growth
of Passive Resistance, which has attracted
world-wide attention. The term does not fit
the activity of the Indian community during
the past eight years. Its equivalent in the
vernacular, rendered into English, means
17
2
M. K. Gandhi
Truth-Force. I think Tolstoy called it also
Soul-Force or Love-Force, and so it is. Carried
out to its utmost limit, this force is independent
of pecuniary or other material assistance ;
certainly, even in its elementary form, of
physical force or violence. Indeed, violence is
the negation of this great spiritual force,
which can only be cultivated or wielded by
those who will entirely eschew violence. It is
force that may be used by individuals as well
as by communities. It may be used as well in
political as in domestic affairs. Its universal
applicability is a demonstration of its perman-
ence an invincibility. It can be used alike by
men, women, and children. It is totally untrue
to say that it is a force to be used only by the
weak so long as they are not capable of meet-
ing violence by violence. This superstition
arises from the incompleteness of the English
expression. It is impossible for those who
consider themselves to be weak to apply this
force. Only those who realise that there is
something in man which is superior to the
brute nature in him, and that the latter always
yields to it, can effectively be Passive Resis-
ters. This force is to violence and, therefore,
to all tyranny, all injustice, "what light is to
18
The Theory and Practice of Passive Resistance
darkness. In politics, its use is based upon the
immutable maxim that government of the
people is possible only so long as they consent
either consciously or unconsciously to be
governed. We did not want to be governed by
the Asiatic Act of 1907 of the Transvaal, and
it had to go before this mighty force. Two
courses were open to us — to use violence when
we were called upon to submit to the Act, or to
suffer the penalties prescribed under the Act,
and thus to draw out and exhibit the force of
the soul within us for a period long enough to
appeal to the sympathetic chord in the gover-
nors or the law-makers. We have taken long
to achieve what we set about striving for.
That was because our Passive Resistance was
not of the most complete type. All Passive
Resisters do not understand the full value of
the force, nor have we men who always from
conviction refrain from violence. The use of
this force requires the adoption of poverty, in
the sense that we must be indifferent whether
we have the wherewithal to feed or clothe
ourselves. During the past struggle, all Pas-
sive Resisters, if any at all, were not prepared
to go that length. Some again were only
Passive Resiste.rs so-called. They came with-
19
M. K. Gandhi
out any conviction, often with mixed motives-,,
less often with impure motives. Some even,
whilst engaged in the struggle, would gladly
have resorted to violence but for most vigilant
supervision. Thus it was that the struggle
became prolonged ; for the exercise of the
purest soul-force, in its perfect form, brings
about instantaneous relief. For this exercise,
prolonged training of the individual soul is an
absolute necessity, so that a perfect Passive
Resister has to be almost, if not entirely, a
perfect man. We cannot all suddenly become
such men, but, if my proposition is correct — as
I know it to be correct — the greater the spirit
of Passive Resistance in us, the better men we
will become. Its use, therefore, is, I think,
indisputable, and it is a force which, if it
became universal, would revolutionise social
ideals and do away with despotisms and the
ever-growing militarism under which the
nations of the West are groaning and are being
almost crushed to death, and which fairly
promises to overwhelm even the nations of the
East- If the past struggle has produced even
a few Indians who would dedicate themselves
to the task of becoming Passive Resisters as
nearly perfect as possible, they, would not only
20
The Theory and Practice of Passive Resistance
'have served themselves in the truest sense of
the term, they would also have served huma-
nity at large. Thus viewed, Passive Resistance
is the noblest and the best education. It should
come, not after the ordinary education in
letters of children, but it should precede it. It
will not be denied that a child, before it begins
to write its alphabet and to gain worldly know-
ledge, should know what the soul is, what
truth is, what love is, what powers are latent
in the soul. It should be an essential of real
education that a child should learn that, in the
struggle of life, it can easily conquer hate by
love, untruth by truth, violence by self-suffer-
ing. It was because I felt the forces of this
truth, that, during the latter part of the
struggle, I endeavoured, as much as I could»
to train the children at Tolstoy Farm and then
at Phoenix along these lines, and one of the
reasons for my departure to India is still
further to realise, as I already do in part, my
own imperfection as a Passive Resister, and
then to try to perfect myself, for I believe that
it is in India that the nearest approach to per-
fection is most possible.
21
SPEECH AT THE JOHANNESBURG
BANQUET
[A Banquet was given at Johannesburg to Mr.
and Mrs, Gandhi on the eve of their departure for
India, by a large number of Europeans and Indians
when Mr. Gandhi said] : —
Mr. Gandhi said that they or circumstances
had placed him that evening in a most emhar-
rassing position. Hitherto those who had
known him in Johannesburg had known him
in the capacity of one of many hosts at
gatherings of that kind, but that evening they
had placed him in the unfortunate position of
being a guest, and he did not know how he
would be able to discharge that duty. For the
other he thought long experience had fitted
him, if he might say so with due humility,
most admirably ; but the present position was
entirely new to him and Mrs. Gandhi, and he
was exceedingly diffident as to how he was
going to discharge the new duty that had been
imposed upon him. So much had been said
about Mrs. Gandhi and himself, their so-called
devotion, their so-called self-sacrifice,and many
other things. There was one injunction of
his religion, and he thought it was true of all
religions, and that was that when one's praises
22 •
speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
were sung one should fly from those praises,
and, if one could not do that, one should stop
one's ears, and if one could not do either of
these things one should dedicate, everything
that was said in connection with one to the
Almighty, the Divine Essence, which pervaded
everyone and everything in the Universe, and
he hoped that Mrs. Gandhi and he would have
the strength to dedicate all that had been said
that evening to that Divine Essence.
Of all the precious gifts that had been given
to them those four boys were the most precious,
and probably Mr. Chamney could tell them
something of the law of adoption in India and
what Mr. and Mrs. Naidoo, both of them old
gaol-birds, had done. They had gone through
the ceremony of adoption, and they had sur-
rendered their right to their four children and
given them (Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi) the charge.
He did not know that they were worthy to
take charge of those children. He could only
assure them that they would try to do their
best. The four boys had been his pupils when
he had been conducting a school for Passive
Eesisters at Tolstoy Farm and later on at
Phoenix. Then when Mrs. Naidoo had sought
imprisonment, the boys had been taken over to
• 23
M. K. Gandhi
Johannesburg, and he thought that he had
lost those four pearls, but the pearls had
returned to him. He only hoped that Mrs.
Oandhi and he would be able to take charge of
the precious gift.
Johannesburg was not a new place to him.
He saw many friendly faces there, many who
had worked with him in many struggles in
Johannesburg. He had gone through much
in life. A great deal of depression and sorrow
had been his lot, but he had also learnt during
all those years to love Johannesburg even
though it was a Mining Camp. It was in
Johannesburg that he had found his most
precious friends. It was in Johannesburg
that the foundation for the great struggle of
Passive Resistance was laid in the September
of 1906. It was in Johannesburg that he had
found a friend, a guide, and a biographer in
the late Mr. Doke. It was in Johannesburg
that be had found in Mrs. Doke a loving sister,
who had nursed him back to life, when he had
been assaulted by a countryman who had
misunderstood his mission and who misunder-
stood what he had done. It was in Johannes-
burg that he had found a Kallenbach, a Polak,
a Miss Schlesin, and many another who had
24 ■
speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
always helped him, and always cheered him
-and his countrymen. Johannesburg, therefore
had the holiest associations of all the holy
associations that Mrs. Gandhi and he would
■carry back to India, and, as he had already
said on many another platform. South Africa,
next to India, would be the holiest land to him
and to Mrs. Gandhi and to his children, for, in
spite of all the bitternesses, it had given them
^those life-long companions. It was in Johan-
nesburg again that the European Committee
had been formed, when Indians were going
4;hrough the darkest stage in their history,
presided over then, as it still was, by Mr.
Hosken. It was last, but not least, Johannes-
burg that had given Valiamma, that young
girl, whose picture rose before him even as he
spoke, who had died in the cause of truth.
Simple-minded in faith — she had not the
knowledge that he had, she did not know
what Passive Resistance was, she did not
know what it was the community would gain,
but she was simply taken up with unbounded
•enthusiasm for her people — went to gaol, came
out of it a wreck, and within a few days died.
It was Johannesburg again that produced a
Nagappan and Naryansamy, two lovely youths
25
M. K. Gandhi
hardly out of their teens, who also died. But
both Mrs. Gandhi and he stood living before
them. He and Mrs. Gandhi had worked in
the lime light ; those others had worked behind
the scenes, not knowing where they were
going, except this, that what they were doing
was right a^d proper, and, if any praise was
due anywhere at all, it was due to those three
who died. They had had the name of
Harbatsingh given to them. He (the speaker)
had had the privilege of serving imprisonment
with him. Harbatsingh was 75 years old. He
was an ex-indentured Indian, and when he
(the speaker) asked him why he had come
there, that he had gone there to seek his grave,
the brave man replied, " What does it matter ?
I know what you are fighting for. You have
not to pay the £3 tax, but my fellow ex-inden-
tured Indians have to pay that tax, and what
more glorious death could I meet ?" He had met
that death in the gaol at Durban. No wonder if
Passive Resistance had fired and quickened
the conscience of South Africa ! And, there-
fore, whenever he had spoken, he had said
that, if the Indian community had gained
anything through this settlement it was
certainly due to Passive Resistance ; but
26
speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
it was certainly not due to Passive Resis-
tance alone. Be thought that the cablegram
that had been read that evening showed
that they had to thank that noble Viceroy,
Lord Hardinge, for his great effort. He
thought, too, that they had to thank the
Imperial Government, who, during the past
few years, in season and out of season, had
been sending despatches after despatches to
General Botha, and asking him to consider
their standpoint — the Imperial standpoint.
They had to thank also the Union Government
for the spirit of justice they had adopted that
time. They had, too, to thank the noble mem-
bers of both Houses of the Legislature who had
made those historic speeches and brought
about the settlement ; and, lastly, they had to
thank the Opposition also for their co-operation
with the Government in bringing about
the passage of the Bill, in spite of the
jarring note produced by the Natal Members.
When one considered all those things, the
service that he and Mrs. Gandhi might have
rendered could be only very little. They were
but two out of many instruments that had
gone to make this settlement. And what was
that settlement ? In his humble opinion, the
• 27
M. K. Gandhi
"value of the settlement, if they were to examine
it, would consist not in the intrinsic things
they had received, but in the sufferings and the
sorrows long drawn out that were necessary in
order to achieve those things. If an outsider
were to come there and find that there was a
banquet given to two humble individuals for
the humble part they played in a settlement
which freed indentured Indians from a tax
which they should never have been called upon
to pay, and if he were told also that some
redress were given in connection with their
marriages, and that their wives who were law-
fully married to them according to their own
religions had not hitherto been recognised as
their wives, but by this settlement those wives
were recognised as valid wives according to
the law of South Africa, that outsider would
laugh, and consider that those Indians, or
those Europeans who had joined them in
having a banquet, and giving all those praises
and so on, must be a parcel of fools. What was
there to gloat over in having an intolerable
"burden removed which might have been
removed years ago ? What was there in
a lawful wife's being recognised in a place
iike South Africa ? But, proceeded Mr. Gandhi,
28
speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
he concurred with Mr. Duncan in an article-
he wrote some years ago, when he truly
analysed the struggle, and said that behind
that struggle for concrete rights lay the-
great spirit which asked for an abstract
principle, and the fight which was under.,
taken in 1906, although it was a fight
against a particular law, was a fight undertaken
in order to combat the spirit that was seen
about to overshadow the whole of South Africa
and to undermine the glorious British Consti-
tution, of which the Chairman had spoken so
loftily that evening, and about which he
(the speaker) shared his views. It was his
knowledge, right or wrong, of the British
Constitution which bound him to the Empire..
Tear that Constitution to shreds and his loyalty
also would be torn to shreds. Keep that
Constitution intact, and they held him bound a
slave to that Constitution. He had felt that the-
choice lay for himself and his fellow-country-
men between two courses, when this spirit was
brooding over South Africa, either to sunder
themselves from the British Constitution, or
to fight in order that the ideals of that Constitu-
tion might be preserved — but only the ideals.
Lord Ampthill had said, in a preface to Mr.
29
M. K. Gaiidhi
Doke's book, that the theory of the British
Constitution must be preserved at any cost if
the British Empire was to be saved from the
mistakes that all the previous Empires had
made. Practice might bend to the temporary
aberration through which local circumstances
might compel them to pass, it might bend
before unreasoning or unreasonable prejudice,
but theory once recognised could never be
departed from, and this principle must be
maintained at any cost. And it was that spirit
which had been acknowledged now by the
Union Government, and acknowledged how
nobly and loftily. The words that General
Smuts so often emphasised still rang in his
ears. He had said, " Gandhi, this time we want
no misunderstanding, we want no mental or
other reservations, let all the cards be on the
table, and I want you to tell me wherever you
think that a particular passage or word does
not read in accordance with your own reading,"
and it was so. That was the spirit in which he
approached the negotiations. When he remem-
bered General Smuts of a few years ago, when
he told Lord Crewe that South Africa would
not depart from its policy of racial distinction,
that it was bound to retain that distinction,
30
speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
and that, therefore, the sting that lay in this
Immigration Law would not be removed,
many a friend, including Lord Ampthill, asked
whether they could not for the time being
suspend their activity. He had said " No." If
they did that it would undermine his loyalty,
and even though he might be the only person
he would still fight on. Lord Ampthill had
congratulated him, and that great nobleman
had never deserted the cause even when it was
at its lowest ebb, and they saw the result that
day. They had not by any means to congratu-
late themsel\res on a victory gained. There
was no question of a victory gained, but the
question of the establishment of the principle
that, so far as the Union of South Africa at
least was concerned, its legislation would
never contain the racial taint, would never
contain the colour disability. The practice
would certainly be different. There was the
Immigration Law — it recognised no racial
distinctions, but in practice they had arranged,
they had given a promise, that there should be
no undue influx from India as to immigration.
That was a concession to present prejudice.
Whether it was right or wrong was not for him
to discuss then. But it was the establishment
31
M. K. Gandht
of that principle which had made the struggle
so important in the British Empire, and the
establishment of that principle which had
made those sufferings perfectly justifiable and
perfectly honourable, and he thought that,
when they considered the struggle from that
standpoint, it was a perfectly dignified thing
for any gathering to congratulate itself upon
such a vindication of the principles of the
British Constitution. One word of caution he
wished to utter regarding the settlement. The
settlement was honourable to both parties. He
did not think there was any room left for mis-
understanding, but whilst it was final in the
sense that it closed the great struggle, it was
not final in the sense that it gave to Indians
all that they were entitled to. There was still
the Gold Law which had many a sting in it.
There was still the Licensing Laws throughout
the Union, which also contained many a sting.
There was still a matter which the Colonial-
born Indians especially could not understand
or appreciate, namely, the water-tight com-
partments in which they had to live ; whilst
there was absolutely free inter-communication
and inter-migration between the Provinces for
Europeans, Indians had to be cooped up in
32
speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
their respective Provinces. Then there was
undue restraint on their trading activity. There
was the prohibition as to holding landed
property in the Transvaal, which was degrad-
ing, and :all these things took Indians into all
kinds of undesirable channels. These restric-
tions would have to be removed. But for that,
he thought, sufficient patience would have to
be exercised. Time was now at their disposal,
and how wonderfully the tone had been
changed ! And here he had been told in
Capetown, and he believed it implicitly, the
spirit of Mr. Andrews had pervaded all those
statesmen and leading men whom he saw. He
came and went away after a brief period, but
he certainly fired those whom he saw with a
sense of their duty to the Empire of which
they were members. But, in any case, to
whatever circumstances that healthy tone was
due, it had not escaped him. He had seen it
amongst European friends whom he met at
Capetown; he had seen it more fully in Durban,
and this time it had been his privilege to meet
many Europeans who were perfect strangers
even on board the train, who had come
smilingly forward to congratulate him on
what they had called a great victory. Every-
• 33
3
M. K. Gandhi
where he had noticed that healthy tone.
He asked European friends to continue
that activity, either through the European
Committee or through other channels, and
to give his fellow-countrymen their help and
extend that fellow-feeling to them also, so that
they might be able to work out their own
salvation.
To his countrymen he would say that they
should wait and nurse the settlement, which
he considered was all that they could possibly
and reasonably have expected, and that they
would now live to see, with the co-operation
of their European friends, that what was
promised was fulfilled, that the administration
of the existing laws was just, and that vested
rights were respected in the administration ;
that after they had nursed these things, if
they cultivated European public opinion,
making it possible for the Government of the
day to grant a restoration of the other rights
of which they had been deprived, he did not
think that there need be any fear about the
future. He thought that, with mutual
co-operation, with mutual goodwill, with due
response on the part of either party, the
Indian community need never be a source
34 '
speech at the Johannesburg Banquet
of weakness to that Government or to any
Government. On the contrary, he had full
faith in his countrymen that, if they were well
treated, they would always rise to the occasion
and help the Government of the day. If they
had insisted on their rights on many an
occasion, he hoped that the European friends
who were there would remember that they had
also discharged the responsibilities which had
faced them.
And now it was time for him to close his
remarks and say a few words of farewell only.
He did not know how he could express those
words. The best years of his life had been
passed in South Africa. India, as his distin-
guished countryman, Mr. Gokhale, had
reminded him, had become a strange land to
him. South Africa he knew, but not India.
Fie did not know what impelled him to go
to India, but he did know that the parting
from them all, the parting from the European
friends who had helped him through thick and
thin, was a heavy blow, and one he was least
able to bear ; yet he knew he had to part from
them. He could only say farewell and ask
them to give him their blessing, to pray for
them that their heads might not be turned by
35
M. K. Gandhi
the praise they had received, that they might
still know how to do their duty to the best
of their ability, that they might still learn that
first, second, and last should be the approbation
of their own conscience, and that then what-
ever might be due to them would follow in its-
own time.
36
INDIANS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS
SPEECH AT VERULAM
[One of the most important gatherings held just
before Mr. Gandhi left South Africa was the great
meeting of indentured Indians and employers at
Verulam. In his address, Mr. Gandhi took pains
to make the position under the Relief Act absolutely
clear to the Indian labourers, and addressed a few
.earnest words at the close to the European Employers
of the neighbourhood] : —
He asked his countrymen to understand that
it was wrong for them to consider that the
relief that had been obtained had been obtained
because he had gone to gaol, or his wife, or
those who were immediately near and dear to
him. It was because theij had had the good sense
and courage to give up their own lives and to
sacrifice themselves, and in these circum-
stances he had also to tell them that many
causes led to that relief, and one of these was
'Certainly also the most valuable and unstinted
assistance rendered by Mr. Marshall Campbell
■ 37
M. K. Gandhi
of Mount Edgecombe. He thought that their
thanks and his thanks were due to him for the
magnificent work that he did in the Senate
whilst the Bill was passing through it. They
would now not have to pay the £3 Tax, and the
arrears would also be remitted. That did not
mean that they were free from their present
indentures. They were bound to go through
their present indentures faithfully and
honestly, but, when those indentures termi-
nated, they were just as free as any other free
Indian, and they were entitled, if they would
go to the Protector's office, to the same
discharge certificate as was granted to those
who came before 1895, under Law 25 of 1891.
They were not bound to re-indenture nor to
return to India. The discharge certificates
would be issued to them free of charge. If
they wanted, after having gone to India, to
return, they could only do so after they
had lived for full three years in the Province
as free men after serving their indentures. If
any of them wished to have assistance for
going to India, they could obtain it from the
Government if they did not wish to return
from India. If, therefore, they wanted to
return from India, they would fight shy of
38 ■
Indians and their Employers
that assistance which was given to them by
the Government, but would find their own
money or borrow it from friends. If they
re-indentured, they could come under the
same law, namely. Law 25 of 1891. His own
advice to them was not to re-indenture, but by
all means to serve their present masters under
the common law of the country. If ever
occasion arose, which he hoped would never
happen, they now knew what it was possible for
them to do. But he wanted to remind them of
this one thing, that Victoria Country, as also
the other Districts of Natal, had not been
so free from violence on their own part as the
Newcastle District had been. He did not care
that provocation had been offered to them
or how much they had retaliated with their
sticks or with stones, or had burned the sugar
cane — that was not passive Resistance, and, if
he had been in their midst, he would have
repudiated them entirely and allowed his own
head to be broken rather than permit them to
use a single stick against their opponents.
And he wanted them to believe him when he
told them that Passive Resistance pure and
simple was an infinitely finer weapon than all
the sticks and gunpowder put together. They
39
M. K. Gandhi
might strike work, but they might compel
nobody else to strike work, and, if, as a result
of their strike, they were sentenced to be impri-
soned, whipped, or to both, they must suffer
even unto death — that was Passive Resistance,
nothing else. Nothing else, and nothing less
than that, would satisfy the requirements of
Passive Resistance. If, therefore,he was inden-
tured to Mr. Marshall Campbell, or Mr.Sanders,
or any friends about there, and if he found that
he was being persecuted or not receiving
justice, in their case he would not even go to
the Protector, he would sit tight and say,
" My master, I want justice or I won't work.
Give me food if you want to, water if you
want to ; otherwise, I sit here hungry and
thirsty," and he assured them that the hardest,
stoniest heart would be melted. Therefore,
let that sink deeply into themselves, that
whenever they were afraid of any injury being
done to them all, that was the sovereign
remedy and that alone was the most effective
remedy. If they wanted advice and guidance,
and many of them had complained that he
was going away, and that his advice would not
be at their disposal, all he could suggest to
them was that, although he was going away,
40
41
-^ X -
£ c
Indians and their Employers
Phoenix was not leaving, and, therefore, if they
had any difficulty for which they did not
wish to pay Mr. Langston or other lawyers,
they should go to Phoenix and ask Mr. West
or Mr, Chhaganlal Gandhi what was to be
done in a particular case. If Mr. West or
Mr. Chhaganlal could help them, they would
do so free of charge, and if they could not
they would send them to Mr. Langston or his
other brothers in the law, and he had no doubt
that, if they went to Mr. Langston with a
certificate from Mr. West that they were too
poor, he would render them assistance free
of charge. But, if they were called upon to
sign any document whatsoever, his advice to
them was not to sign it unless they went
to Phoenix and got advice. If Phoenix ever
failed them and wanted a farthing from them,
then they should shun Phoenix.
The scene before him that morning would
not easily fade from his memory, even though
the distance between him and them might
be great. He prayed that God might help
them in all the troubles that might be in store
for them, and that their conduct might be such
that God might find it possible to help them-
And to the Eujopean friends living in this
■ 41
M. K. Gandhi
country he wished to tender his thanks, and
he wished also to ask them to forgive him
if they had ever considered that during that
awful time he was instrumental in bringing
about any retaliation at all on the part of
his countrymen. He wished to give them,
this assurance that he had no part or parcel
in it, and that, so far as he knew, not a single
leading Indian had asked the men to retaliate.
There were times in a man's life when he lost
his senses, his self-control, and under a sense
of irritation, fancied or real, began to retaliate
when the brute nature in him rose, and he
only went by the law of " might is right,"'
or the law of retaliation — a tooth for a tooth.
If his countrymen had done so, whether under
a real sense of wrong or fancied, let them
forgive him and let them keep a kind corner
in their hearts ; and, if there were any
employers of indentured labour there present
who would take that humble request to them,
he did ask them not to think always selfishly,
though he knew it was most difficult to
eradicate self, and let them consider these
indentured Indians not merely as cattle which
they had to deal with, but as human beings
with the same fine feelings, the same fine
42 .
Indians and their Ernploysrs
sentiments as themselves. Let them credit
them to the fullest extent with their weak-
nesses, as also at least with the possibility of
all the virtues. Would they not then treat
their Indian employees even as brothers ? It
was not enough that they wcre well treated as
they well treated their cattle. It was not
enough that they looked upon them with a
kindly eye merely ; but it was necessary that
employers should have a much broader view of
their own position, that they should think
of their employees as fellow human beings and
not as Asiatics who had nothing in common
with them who were Europeans, and they
would also respond to every attention that
might be given to them. Then they would
have an intelligent interest not merely in the
material or physical well-being of their men,,
but in their moral well-being. They would
look after their morality, after their children,.
after their education, after their sanitation^
and, if they were herding together in such a
manner that they could not but indulge in
hideous immorality, that they would them-
selves recoil with horror from the very
imagination that the men who were for the
time being under their control should indulge
• 43
M. K. Gaudhi
in these things because they had been placed
in these surroundings. Let them not consider
that because these men were drawn from
the lowest strata of society that they were
beyond reclamation. No, they would respond
to every moral pressure that might be brought
to bear upon them, and they will certainly
realise the moral height that it is possible for
every human being, no matter who he is,
no matter what tinge of colour his skin
possesses.
44
Ml. <i: Airs. G.A.NDH1.
45
REPLY TO MADRAS PUBLIC
RECEPTION
[The following is the speech delivered by Mr.-
M. K. Gandhi on the occasion of his visit to Madras
in 1915. Sir S. Suhratnania Aiyar presided on the
occasion] : —
Mr. Chairman and Friends,— On behalf
of my wife and myself I am deeply grateful for
the honour that you here, and Madras, and,
may I say, this presidency, have done to us
and the affection that has been lavished upon
us in this great and enlightened, not benighted.
Presidency. If there is anything that we have
deserved, as has been stated in this beautiful
address, I can only say I lay it at the feet of my
Master under whose inspiration I have been
working all this time under exile in South
Africa. In so far as the sentiments expressed
in this address are merely prophetic, sir, I
accept them as a blessing and as a prayer
from you and from this great meeting, that
both my wife and I myself may possess the
power, the inclination, and the life to dedicate
' 45
31. K. Gandhi
whatever may be developed in us by this
sacred land of ours to the service of the
Motherland. It is no wonder that we have
come to Madras. As my friend, Mr. Natesan,
will perhaps tell you, we have been long
overdue, and we seem to have neglected
Madras. But we have done nothing of the
kind. We knew that we had a corner in your
hearts and we knew that you will not misjudge
us if we did not hasten to Madras before
going to other Presidencies and other towns.
It was in 1896 that I found in Mr. Gokhale
my Rajya Guru, and it was here that I found
that deep abiding sense of religion which has
carried me through all trials. I appeared in
1896 before you as a stranger pleading a
forlorn cause, and then discovered that
Madras, this Presidency, had that instinctive
power to distinguish between a right cause
and a wrong cause which marks the religious,
and it was here that you appreciated in its
fullest measure the gravity of the situation
that I was then endeavouring to place before
my countrymen throughout India. (Hear,
hear). And the impressions that I took with
me to South Africa in 1896 have been more
than amply verified throughout ray experience
46
Reply to Madras Public Reception
in South Africa. The drafters of this beautiful
address have, I venture to say, exaggerated
out of all proportion the importance of the
little work that I was able to do in South
Africa. (Cries of No, No). As I have said
on so many platforms, India is still suffering
under the hypnotic influence produced upon
it by that great saintly politician, Mr. Gokhale.
He a'ssured in ray favour a certificate which
you have taken at its surface value and it is
"that certificate which has placed me in a most
embarassing position, embarassing because I
do not know that I shall be able to answer the
expectations that have been raised about myself
and about my wife in the work that lies before
us in the future on behalf of this country.
But, Sir, if one-tenth of the language that
has been used in this address is deserved by
us, what language do you propose to use
for those who have lost their lives, and there-
fore finished their work, on behalf of your
suffering countrymen in South Africa ? What
language do you propose to use for Nagappan
and Narayanaswami, lads of seventeen or
'eighteen years, who braved in simple faith
all the trials, all the sufferings, and all the
indignities for the sake of the honour of the
47
M. K. Gandhi
Motherland ? (Applause) What language do-
you propose to use with reference to
Valliamma, that sweet girl of seventeen years,
who was discharged from Maritzburg prison,
skin and bone, suffering from fever to which
she succumbed after about a month's time ?
(Cries of Shame) It was the Madrasis, who, of
all Indians, were singled out by the great
Divinity that rules over us for this great work.
Do you know that in the great city of
Johannesburg, the Madrasis look on a
Madrasi dishonoured if he has not passed
through the gaols once or twice during this
terrible crisis that your countrymen in South
Africa went through during these eight long
years ? You have said that I inspired those
great men and women, but I cannot accept
that proposition. It was they, the simple-
minded folk, who worked away in faith, never
expecting slightest reward, who inspired me,
who kept me on the proper level, and who
combined me by their great sacrifice by their
great faith, by their great trust in the great
God to do the work that I was able to do.
It is my misfortune that I and my wife have
been obliged to work in the lime light and you
have magnified out of proportion this little
48 '
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Reply to Madras Public Reception
work we have been able to do. Believe me,
my dear friends, that if you consider whether
in India or in South Africa it is possible
for us, poor mortals, the same individuals,
the same stuff of which you are made, if you
consider that it is possible for us to do
anything whatsoever with your assistance
and without your doing the same thing that
we would be prepared to do, you are lost, and
we are also lost and our services will be in
vain. I do not for one moment believe that
the inspiration was given by us.
Inspiration was given by them to us, and
we were able to be interpreters between the
powers who called themselves the Governors
and those men for whom redress was so neces-
sary. We were simply links between the two
parties and nothing more. It was my duty
having received the education that was given,
to me by my parents, to interpret what was
going on in our midst to those simple folk, and
they rose to the occasion. They realised the
importance of birth in India, they realised
the might of religious force, and it was they
who inspired us. Then let these who have
finished their work, and who have died for you
and me, let them inspire you and us. We are
49
4
M. K. Gandhi
still living, and who knows that the devil will
not possess us to-raorrow and we shall not for-
sake the duty ? But these three have gone for
ever. An old man of 75 from the United
Provinces, Harbat Singh, he has also joined
the majority and died in gaol in South Mrica,
and he deserved the crown that you would
seek to impose upon us. These young men
deserve all these adjectives that you have so
affectionately, but blindly, lavished upon us.
It was not only the Hindus who struggled, but
there were Muhammadans, Parsis and Chris-
tians, and almost every part of India was
represented in the struggle. They realised
the common danger, and they realised also
■what their destiny was as Indians, as it was
they, and they alone, who matched the soul-
force against the physical forces.
50
MADRAS LAW DINNER
[Speech delivered by Mr. M. K. Gandhi on the
occasion of " Madras Law Dinner " held at Madras
on 2Mh April, 1915, under the presidency of the
Advocate-General] : —
My Lord Chief Justice, Mr. Chairman
AND Gentlemen :— During my three months'
tour in India, as also in South Africa, I have
been so often questioned how I, a determined
opponent of modern civilisation, and avowed
patriot, could reconcile myself to loyalty to
the British Empire of which India was such a
large part, how it was possible for me to find it
consistent that India and England could work
together for mutual benefit. It gives me the
greatest pleasure this evening at this great
and important gathering to re-declare my
loyalty to the British Empire, and my loyalty
is based upon very selfish grounds. As a
passive resister I discovered that he has to
make good his claim to passive resistance, no
matter under what circumstances he finds
himself, and I find that the British Empire
51
M. K. Gandhi
had certain ideals, with which I have fallen in
love, and one of these ideals is that every
subject of the British Empire has the freest
scope possible for his energies and for what-
ever he thinks is due to his conscience, 1 think
that this is true of the British Empire, as it is
not true of any other Government that we see.
I feel, as you have, perhaps, known that I am
no lover of any Government, and I have more
than once said that the Government is best
which governs that least ; and I have found
that it is possible for me to be governed least
under the British Empire hence my loyalty to
the British throne.
52
ADVICE TO STUDENTS
[Speech delivered at the Y. M. C. A. Madras on
27th April, 1915, Hon'ble Mr. V. S.Srinivasa Sastry
presiding] : —
Mr. Chairman and Dear Friends:—
Madras has well-nigh exhausted the English
vocabulary in using adjectives of virtue with
reference to my wife and myself and if I may
be called upon to give an opinion as to where
T have been smoothered with kindness, love and
attention, I would have to say it is Madras.
(Applause). But as I have said so often, I
believed it of Madras. So it is no wonder to
me that you are lavishing all these kindnesses
with unparalleled generosity, and now the
worthy President of the Servants of India
Society, under which Society I am now going
through a period of probation, has, if I may
say so, capped it all. Am I worthy of these
things ? My answer from the innermost recess
of the heart is an emphatic " No." But
I have come to India to become worthy of
every adjective, that you may use, and all my
• 53
M. K. Gandhi
life will certainly be dedicated to prove worthy
of them if I am to be a worthy servant. In
India's beautiful national song (Bande Mata"
ram) the poet has lavished all the adjectives
that he possibly could to describe Mother
India. Have we a right to sing that hymn ?
The poet no doubt gave us a picture for our
realisation, the words of which remain simply
prophetic, and it is for you, the hope of India,
to realise every word that the poet has said in
describing this Motherland of ours. To-day
I feel that these adjectives are very largely
misplaced in his description of the Mother-
land.
You, the students of Madras as well as the
students all over India, are you receiving an
education which will make you worthy to
realise that ideal, and which will draw the best
out of you ? Or is it an education which has
become a factory for making Government
employees, or clerks in commercial offices ? Is
the goal of the education that you are receiv-
ing for mere employment, v/hether in Govern-
ment department or in other departments ? If
that be the goal of your education, if that is
the goal that you have set before yourselves, I
feel, I fear, that the vision that the poet
54
Advice to Students
pictured for himself is far from beicg realised.
As you have heard me say, perhaps, or as you
have read, I am, and I have been, a determined
opponent of modern civilisation. 1 want you
to turn your eyes to-day upon what is going on
in Europe, and if you have come to the conclu-
sion that Europe is to-day groaning under the
heels of that modern civilisation, then you and
your elders will have to think twice before you
emulate that civilisation in our Motherland.
But I have been told : " How can we help it,
seeing that our Rulers bring that culture to our
Motherland ?" Do not make any mistake about
it. I do not for one moment believe that it is
for our Rulers to bring that culture to you,
unless you are prepared to accept it and if it
be that the Rulers bring that culture before us,
I think that we have forc3s for ourselves to
enable us to reject that culture without having
to reject the Rulers themselves. (Applause). I
have said on many a platform that the British
race is with us. I decline to go into the reasons
why that race is with us, but I do not believe
that it is possible for India, if it would live up
to the traditions of the Sages of whom you have
heard from our worthy President, to transmit a
message through this great race, a message
55
M. K. Gandhi
not of physical might but a message of love.
And then it will be your privilege to conquer
the conquerors, not by shedding blood but by
sheer spiritual predominance. When I consider
what is going on in India, I think it is neces-
sary for us to see what our opinion is in
connection with the political assasinations and
political dacoities. I feel that these are purely
a foreign importation, which cannot take root
in this land. But you, the student world, have
to beware lest, mentally or morally, you give
one thought of approval to this kind of terro-
rism. I as a passive resister will give you
another thing very substantial for it. Terrorise
yourself; search within; by all means resist
tyranny where ever you find it ; by all means
resist encroachment upon your liberty ; but not
by shedding the blood of the tyrant. That is
not what is taught by our religion. Our religion
is based upon Ahim.sa which in its active form
is nothing but love, love not only to your
neighbours, not only to your friends, but love
even to those who may be your enemies.
One word more in connection with the same
thing. I think that if we were to practise
truth, to practise Ahinisa, we must immedi-
ately see that we also practise fearlessness. If
56 .
Advice to Students
our Rulers are doing what in our opinion is
wrong, and if we feel it our duty to let them
hear our advice, even though it may be consi-
dered sedition, I urge you to speak sedition —
but at your peril, you must be prepared to
suffer the consequences. And when you are
ready to suffer the consequences and not hit
below the belt, then I think you will have
made good your right to have your advice
heard even by the Government.
I ally myself to the British Government,
because I believe that it is possible for me to
claim equal partnership with every subject of
the British Empire. I to-day claim that equal
partnership. I do not belong to a subject race.
I do not call myself a subject race, (Applause).
But there is this thing : it is not for the British
Governors to give you, it is for you to take the
thing. That 1 want only by discharging my
obligations. Max Muller has told us — we need
not go to Max Muller to interpret our own
religion — but he says our religion consists in
-four letters D-U-T-Yand not in the five letters
R-I-G-H-T. And if you believe that all that we
want can go from a lettpv, discharge of our duty
then think always of your duty, and fighting
along these lines you will have no fear of any
. 57
M. K. Gandhi
man, you will only fear God. That is the mess-
age that my Master too, Mr. Gokhale, has given
to us, what is that message then ? It is in the
constitution of the Servants of India Society,,
and that it is that message by which I wish to
be guided in my life. The message is to
spiritualise political life and political institu-
tions of the country. We must immediately set
about realising it in practice. Then students
cannot be away from politics. Politics is as
essential to them as religion. Politics cannot
be divorced from religion.
My views may not be acceptable to you I
know. All the same, I can only give you what is
stirring me to my very depths. On the autho-
rity of my experience in South Africa, I claim
that your countrymen who had not that
modern culture, but who had that strength of
the Rishis of old who have inherited the
Tapasyacharya performed by the Rishis,
without having known a single word of
English literature, and without having known
anything whatsoever of the present modern
culture, were able to rise to their full height..
And what has been possible for the uneducated
and illiterate countrymen of ours in South
Africa is ten times possible for you and for me
58 .
Advice to Students
to-day in this sacred land of ours. May that be
your privilege and may that be mine also!
(Loud Applause).
59
BRAHMINS AND PANCHAMAS
[Air. and Mrs, Gandhi on their way to Tranque-
bar arrived at Mayavarant on 2nd May, 1915,
and they were presented with an address by the citi-
zens of the town. In the course of his reply
Mr. Gandhi said] : —
It was quite by accident that I had the
great pleasure, of receiving an address from
my' Panchama brethren,' and there, they said
that they were without convenience for drink-
ing water, they were without convenience for
living supplies, and they could not buy or hold
land. It was difficult for them even to approach
courts. Probably, the last is due to their fear,
but a fear certainly not due to themselves,
and who is then responsible for this state of
things ? Do we propose to perpetuate this
state of things ? Is it a part of Hinduism ? I
do not know. I have now to learn what
Hinduism really is. In so far as I have been
able to study Hinduism outside India, I have
felt that it is no part of real Hinduism to have
in its fold a mass of people whom I would
60 •
Brahmins and Panchamas
call " untouchables," If it was proved to me
that this is an essential part of Hinduism, I,.,
for one, would declare myself an open rebel
against Hinduism itself. (Hear, hear.)
Are the Brahmins in Mayavaram equimind-
ed towards the Pariah and will they tell me»
if they are so equiminded and if so, will they
tell me if others will not follow ? Even if"
they say that they are prepared to do so but
others will not follow, I shall have to disbelieve
them until I have revised my notions of Hin-
duism. If the Brahmins themselves consider
they are holding high position by penance and
posterity, then they have themselves much to
learn, then they will be the people who have
cursed and ruined the land.
MR. GANDHI AND THE LEADERS
My friend, the Chairman, has asked me the
question whether it is true that I am at war
with my leaders. I say that I am not at war
with my leaders, I seemed to be at war with
my leaders because many things I have heard
seem to be inconsistent with my notions of
self-respect and with self-respect to my
Motherland. I feel that they are probably not
discharging the .sacred trust they have taken
' 61
M. K. Gandhi
upon their shoulders ; but I am not sure I am
studying or endeavouring to take wisdom from
them, but I failed to take that wisdom. It may
be that I am incompetent and unfit to follow
them. So, I shall revise my ideas. Still I am
in a position to say that I seem to be at war
with my leaders. Whatever they do or what-
ever they say does not somehow or other
appeal to me. The major part of what they
say does not seem to be appealing to me.
ENGLISH AND THE VERNACULARS
I find here words of welcome in the English
language. I find in the Congress programme
a Resolution on Swadeshi. If you hold that
you are Swadeshi and yet print these in Eng-
lish, then I am not a Swadeshi. To me it seems
that it is inconsistent. I have nothing to say
against the English language. But I do say
that, if you kill the vernaculars and raise the
English language on the tomb of the vernacu-
lars (hear, hear), then you are not favouring
Swadeshi in the right sense of the term. If
you feel that I do not know Tamil, you should
pardon me, you should excuse me and teach
me and ask me to learn Tamil and by having
your welcome in ,that beautiful language, if
62'
Brahmins and Pauchamas
you translate it to me, then I should think
you are performing some part of the pro-
gramme. Then only I should think I am being
taught Swadeshi.
SWADESHI ENTERPRISE
I asked when we were passing through
Mayavaram whether there have been any
handlooras here and whether there were hand-
loom weavers here. I was told that there were
50 handlooms in Mayavaram. What were
they engaged in ? They were simply engaged
chiefly in preparing " Sarees " for our women.
Then is Swadeshi to be confined only to the
women ? Is it to be only in their keeping V I
do not find that our friends, the male popula-
tion also have their stuff prepared for them in
these by these weavers and through their
handlooms, (a voice there are a thousand hand-
looms here). There are, I understand , one
thousand handlooms so much the worse for
the leaders ! (Loud applause.) If these one
thousand handlooms are kept chiefly in attend-
ing to the wants of our women, double this
supply of our handlooms and you will have all
your wants supplied by your own weavers and
there will be no poverty in the land. I ask
63
M. K. Gandhi
you and ask our friend the President how far
he is indebted to foreign goods for his outfit
and if he can tell me that he has tried his
utmost and still has failed to outfit himself or
rather to fit himself out with Swadeshi
clothing and therefore he has got this stuff, I
shall sit at his feet and learn a lesson. What
I have been able to learn to-day is that it is
entirely possible for me, not with any extra
cost to fit myself with Swadeshi clothing.
How am to I learn through those who move
or who are supposed to be movers in the Con-
gress, the secret of the Resolution. I sit at
the feet of my leaders, I sit at the feet of
Mayavaram people and let them reveal the
mystery, give me the secret of the meaning,
teach me how I should behave myself and tell
me whether it is a part of the National move-
ment that I should drive off those who are
without dwellings, who cry for water and that
1 should reject the advances of those who cry
for food. These are the questions which I
ask my friends here. Since I am saying some-
thing against you, I doubt whether I shall still
enjoy or retain the affection of the student
population and whether I shall still retain the
blessing of my leaders. I ask you to have a
64
Brahmins and Panchamas
large heart and give me a little corner in it.
I shall try to steal into that corner. If you
would, be kind enough to teach me the wis-
dom, I shall leara the wisdom in all humility
and in all earnestness. I am praying for it,
and I am asking for it. If you cannot teach
me, I again declare myself at war with my
leaders. (Loud cheers).
65
REPLY TO NELLORE CONFERENCE
[Replying to a complimentary Resolution moved
at the Madras Provincial Conference at Nellore,
Mr. Gandhi said ]: —
It was an accident that this Resolution
followed on two Resolutions, one with refer-
ence to his revered master and the other with
reference to the noble Viceroy to whom a
fitting tribute had been paid by the President.
He was there free to acknowledge the indebt-
edness of his countrymen in South Africa to
the noble Viceroy. If his wife and he were
worthy of anything that had been said on this
platform and on many a platform, he had
repeated, and he was there again to repeat,
that they owed all to the inspiration they
derived from Indian sources, for it was Mr.
Gokhale, his love, and his message, that had
been his guiding star, and would still remain
his guiding star. He would appeal to them
not to spoil him and his wife by taking away
from the services they had to render by over-
praising them. He would majce this simple,
66 '
Reply to Nellore Conference
but humble, appeal. Let what he and his wife
had done in South Africa be buried there.
Their countrymen in South Africa would
know what had been done. It was impossible
for any one, much less for them, to trade on
any reputation made in South Africa. He
feared that by overpraising them, they might
raise enormous expectations about him and his
wife that they might in the end, he would not
say it was hardly likely, meet with dis-
appointment.
. 67
EEPLY TO BANGALORE PUBLIC
[An address was presented to Mr.andMrs. Gandhi
by the citizens of Bangalore, on 8ih May, 1915, to
•which Mr. Gandhi replied as follows] :—
Mr. Chairman and My Friends,— I think
it is simply impertinent to tell you that I
thank you most sincerely on behalf of my
wife and on my own behalf for the signal
honour you have shown me. Words fail me,
and one thought oppresses me all the more.
Am I, are we, worthy of the honour ? Are we
worthy of the oriental generosity of this love ?
The Chairman has furnished this ground for
the love, and quoted Mr. Gokhale. Let me
not bask in that reputation. See me please in
the nakedness of my working, and in my limi-
tations, you will then know me. I have to
tread on most delicate grounds, and my path
is destined to be through jungles and temples.
The glamour produced by the saintly politician
has vanished, and let us be judged eye to eye.
So many have assembled here to do honour.
This morning, you did greater honour. Greater
68 ■
Reply to Bangalore Public
lionour was shown by the Reception Com-
mittee in arranging for the conversation, in
order to open my heart to you and to under-
stand the inner-most thoughts in you by quiet
conversation between my countrymen and
myself.
I did not want to be dragged. There is a
meaning. Let us not be dragged. Let them
work silently. We should not encourage the
thought that workers will be honoured simi-
larly. Let public men feel that they will be
stoned, that they will be neglected, and let them
feel they still love the country. A charge has
been brought against us that we are too
demonstrative and lack business-like methods.
We plead guilty to the charge. Are we to
copy modern activities, or are we to copy the
ancient civilisation, which has survived so
many shocks ? You and I have to act on the
political platform from the spiritual side, and
if this is done, we shall then conquer the con-
querors. The day will dawn then, when we
can consider an Englishman as a fellow-
citizen (Cheers). That day will shortly come,
but it may be difficult to conceive. I have had
signal opportunities of associating myself with
Englishmen of character, devotion, nobility
69
M. K. Gandhi
and influence. I can assure you that the pre-
sent wave of activity is passing away, and a
new civilisation is coming shortly, which will
be a nobler one.
India is a great dependency and Mysore is
a great Native State. It must be possible for
you to transmit this message to British
Governors and to British statesmen ; the mes-
sage is : establish a Rama Rajija in Mysore
and have your minister a Vashista, who will
command obedience. My fellow countrymen,
then you can dictate terms to the conquerors,.
(Prolonged Cheers).
70
Mr. GANDHI ON Mr. GOKHALE
[In unveiling the portrait of Mr. Gokhale in
Bangalore, Mr. Gandhi spoke as follows] : —
My Dear Countrymen,— Before I perform
this ceremony to which you have called me, I
wish to say this to you that you have given
me a great opportunity or rather a privilege
on this great occasion. I saw in the recitation
— the beautiful recitation that was given to
me, — that God is with them whose garment
was dusty and tattered. My thoughts immedi-
ately went to the end of my garment ; I
examined and found that it is not dusty and it
is not tattered ; it is fairly spotless and clean.
God is not in me. There are other conditions
attached ; but in these conditions too T may
fail ; and you, my dear countrymen, may also
fail ; and if we do tend this well, we should
not dishonour the memory of one whose
portrait you have asked me to unveil this
morning. I have declared myself his disciple in
the political field and T have him as my Rajya
Guru ; and this I claim on behalf of the Indian
71
M. K. Gandhi
people. It was in 1896 that I made this
declaration, and I do not regret having made
the choice.
Mr. Gokhale taught me that the dream of
every Indian who claims to love his country,
should be to act in the political field, should
be not to glorify in language, but to spiritualise
the political life of the country, and the politi-
cal institutions of the country. He inspired
my life and is still inspiring : and in that 1
wish to purify myself and spiritualise myself.
I have dedicated myself to that ideal. I may
fail, and to what extent I may fail, I call my-
self to that extent an unworthy disciple of my
master.
SPIRITUALISING THE POLITICAL LIFE
What is the meaning of spiritualising the
political life of the country? What is the
meaning of spiritualising myself ? That ques-
tion has come before me often and often and
to you it may seem one thing, to me it may
seem another thing; it may mean different
things to the different members of the Servants
of India Society itself. It shows much difficulty
and it shows the difficulties of all those who
want to love their country, who want to serve
72 '
Mr. Gandhi on Mr. Gokhale
their country and who want to honour their
country. I think the political life must be an
-echo of private life and that there cannot be
any divorce between the two, * *
I was by the side of that saintly politician
to the end of his life and I found no ego in
him. I ask you members of the Social Service
League, if there is no ego in you. If he wanted
to shine, he wanted to shine in the political
field of his country, he did so not in order
that he might gain public applause, but in
order that his country may gain. He developed
every particular faculty in him, not in order to
win the praise of the world for him.self but
in order that his country may gain. He did
not seek public applause, but they were
showered upon him, they were thrust upon
him; he wanted that his country may gain
and that was his great inspiration.
There are many things for which India is
blamed, very rightly, and if you should add
one more to our failures the blame will
descend not only on you but also on me for
having participated in to-day's functions. But
I have great faith in my countrymen.
You ask me to unveil this portrait to-day,
• 73
M. K. Gandhi
and I will do so in all sincerity and sincerity
should bo the end of your life. (Loud and
continued applause).
74 '
A TALK WITH MR. GANDHI
[Questioned as to India's poverty, Mr. Gandhi
said India was becoming poorer and poorer, on
account of the disappearance of the handloom
industries owing to violent competition and export of
raw materials] : —
" We have lost " he said, " much of our
self-respect, on account of being too much
Europeanised. We think and speak in English.
Thereby, we impoverish our vernaculars, and
estrange the feelings of the masses. A
knowledge of English is not very essential to
the service of our Motherland." Turning to
caste, he said "caste is the great power and
secret of Hinduism."
Asked where he would stay, Mr. Gandhi
replied : " Great pressure is brought down
on me to settle in Bengal ; but I have a
great capital in the store of my knowledge
in Guzerat and I get letters from there."
" Vernacular literature is important. I want
to have a library of all books. I invite friends
for financial aid to form libraries and locate
them."
75
M. K. Gandhi
" Modern civilisation is a curse in Europe
as also in India. War is the direct result
of modern civilisation, everyone of the Powers
was making preparations for war."
"Passive Resistance is a great moral force,
meant for the weak, also for the strong.
Soul-force depends on itself. Ideals must
work in practice, otherwise they are not
potential. Modern civilisation is a brute
force."
It is one thing to know the ideal and
another thing to practise it. That will ensure
greater discipline, which means a greater
service and greater service means greater
gain to Government. Passive resistance is
a highly aggressive thing. The attribute of
soul is restlessness ; there is room for every
phase of thought.
" Money land and women are the sources of
evil and evil has to be counteracted. I need
not possess land, nor a woman, nor money
to satisfy my luxuries. I do not want to
be unhinged because others are unhinged. If
ideals are practised, there will be less room
/or mischievous activities. Public life has to
be moulded."
" Every current has to change its course.
76
A Talk with Mr. Gandhi
There are one and a half million sadhus and if
every sadhu did his duty, India could achieve
much. Jagat Guru Sankaracharya does not
deserve that apellation because he has no
more force in him."
Malicious material activity is no good. It
finds out means to multiply one's luxuries.
Intense gross modern activity should not be
imposed on Indian institutions, which have to
be remodelled on ideals taken from Hinduism.
Virtue as understood in India is not understood
in foreign lands. Dasaratha is considered a
fool in foreign lands, for his having kept his
promise to his wife. India says a promise
is a promise. That is a good ideal. Material
activity is mischievous. "Truth shall conquer
in the end."
" Emigration does no good to the country
from which people emigrate. Emigrants do
not return better moral men. The whole
thing is against Hinduism. Temples do not
flourish. There are no opportunities for cere-
monial functions. Priests do not come, and
at times, they are merely men of straw.
Immigrants play much mischief and corrupt
society. It is not enterprise. They may earn
more money easily in those parts which
• 77
M. K. Gandhi
means, they do not want to toil and remain
straight in the methods of earning. Immigrants
are not happier and have more material
wants."
Questioned about the Theosophical Society
Mr. Gandhi said : " There is a good deal of
good in the Theosophical Society, irrespective
of individuals. It has stimulated ideas and
thoughts.
78
BENARES INCIDENT
[There appeared in the ' New India ' a charge
against Mr. Gandhi as having spoken something
to he taken an exception to by the public while
addressing a large audience at the "Hindu University
Pavilion" Benares to which Mr. Gandhi replied as
■under'] : —
Mrs. Besant's reference in New India and
certain other references to the Benares inci-
dent perhaps render it necessary for me to
return to the subject, however disinclined I
may be to do so. Mrs. Besant denies my
statement with reference to her whispering to
the Princes. 1 can only say that if I can trust
my eyes and my ears I must adhere to the
statement I have made. She occupied a seat
on the left of the semi-circle on either side of
the Maharaja of Dharbanga, who occupied the
Chair, and there was at least one Prince, per-
haps, there were two who were sitting on her
side. Whilst I was speaking Mrs. Besant was
almost behind me. When the Maharajas rose
Mrs. Besant als.o had risen. I had ceased
' 79
M. K. Gandhi
speaking before the Rajas actually left the
platform. She was discussing the incident
with a group round her on the platform. I
gently suggested to her that she might have
refrained from interrupting, but that if she
disapproved of the speech after it was finished
she could have then dissociated herself from
my sentiments. But she, with some degree of
warmth, said : " How could we sit still when
you were compromising every one of us on the
platform ? You ought not to have made the
remarks you did." This answer of Mrs.
Besant's does not quite tally with her solici-
tude for me which alone, according to her
version of the incident, prompted her to inter-
rupt the speech. I suggest that if she merely
meant to protect me she could have passed a
note round or whispered into my ears her
advice. And, again, if it was for my protection
why was it necessary for her to rise with
Princes and to leave the hall as I hold she did
along with them ?
So far as my remarks are concerned I am
yet unable to know what it was in my speech
that seems to her to be open to such exception
as to warrant her interruption. After refer-
ring to the Viceregal visit and the necessary
80
Benares Incident
precautions that were taken for the Viceroy's-
safety I showed that an assasins death was
anything but honourable death and said that
anarchism was opposed to our Shastras and
had no room in India, I said then where there-
was an honourable death it would go down to
history as men who died for their conviction.
But when a bomb thrower died, secretly plot-
ting all sorts of things, what could he gain ? I
then went on to state and deal the fallacy that,,
had not bomb throwers thrown bombs we
should never have gained what we did with
reference to the Partition movement. It was
at about this stage that Mrs. (Besant appealed
to the chair to stop me. Personally, I will
desire a publication of the whole of my speech
whose trend was a sufficient warrant for
showing that I could not possibly incite the
students to deeds of violence. Indeed it was
conceived in order to carry on a rigorous self-
examination.
I began by saying that it was a humiliation
for the audience and myself that I should hav©
to speak in English. I said that English
having been the medium of instruction it had
done a tremendous injury to the country, and
as I conceive I showed successfully that, had
' 81
6
M. K. Gandhi ^
we received training during the past 50 years
in higher thought in our own vernaculars, we
would be to-day within reach of our goal. I
then referred to the self-government Resolu-
tion passed at the Congress and showed that
whilst the All-India Congress Committee and
the All-India Muslim League would be draw-
ing up thejr paper about the future constitution
their duty was to fit themselves by their own
action for self-government. And in order to
show how short we feel of our duty I drew
attention to the dirty condition of the laby-
rinth of lanes surrounding the great temple of
Kasi Visvanath and the recently erected
palatial buildings without any conception as
to the straightness or width of the streets. ]
then took the audience to the gorgeous scene
that was enacted on the day of the foundation
and suggested that if a stranger not knowing
anything about Indian life had visited the
scene he would have gone away under the
false impression that India was one of the
richest countries in the world, — such was the
display of jewellery worn by our noblemen.
And turning to the Maharajas and the Rajahs
I humourously suggested that it was
necessary for them to hold those treasurers in
82
Benares Incident
trust for the nation before we could realise our
ideals, and I cited the action of the Japanese
noblemen who considered it a glorious
privilege even though there was no necessity
for them, to dispossess themselves of the
treasures and lands which were handed to
them from generation to generation. I then
asked the audience to consider the humiliating
spectacle of the Viceroy's person having to be
protected from ourselves when he was our
honoured guest. And I was endeavouring to
show that the blame for these precautions was
also on ourselves in that they were rendered
necessary because of the introduction of orga-
nised assassination in India. Thus I was
endeavouring to show on the one hand how
the students could usefully occupy themselves
in assisting to rid the society of its proved
defects, on the other, to wean themselves even
in thought from methods of violence.
I claim that with twenty years' experience
of public life in the course of which I had to
address on scores of occasions turbulant audi-
ences. I have some experience of feeling the
pulse of my audience. I was following closely
how the speech was being taken and I certain-
ly did not notice that the student world was
83
M. K. Gandhi
being adversely affected. Indeed some of them
came to me the following morning and told me-
that they perfectly understood my remarks
which had gone home. One of them a keen
debater even subjected to cross-examination
and seemed to feel convinced by a further
development of the argument such as I had
advanced in the course of my speech. Indeed
Ihave spoken now to thousands of students and
others of my countrymen throughout South
Africa, England and India ; and by precisely
the arguments that I used that evening I
claimed to have weaned many from their-
approval of anarchical methods.
Finally, I observe that Mr. S. S. Setlur of
Bombay, who has written on the incident to
the Hindu in no friendly mood towards me,
and who 1 think in some respects totally
unfairly has endeavoured to tear me to pieces,
and who was an eye witness to the proceed-
ings, gives a version different from Mrs.
Besant's. He thinks that the general impres-
sion was not that I was encouraging the anar-
chists but that I was playing the role of an
apologist for the Civilian bureaucrat. The
whole of Mr. Setlur's attack upon me shows
thatlif he is right I was certainly not guilty
84
Benares Incident
of any incitement to violence and that the
offence consisted in my reference to jewellery,
etc.
In order that the fullest justice might be
•done both to Mrs. Besant and myself I would
make the following suggestion. She says that
she does not propose to defend herself by quo-
ting the sentence which drove the Princes
away and that would be playing into the
enemy's hands ; according to her previous
statement my speech is already in the hands
of the detectives so that so far as my safety is
conceraed her forbearance is not going to be
of the slightest use. Would it not therefore be
better that she should either publish a ver-
batim report if she has it or reproduce such
sentiments in my speech as in her opinion,
necessitated her interruption and the Princes'
withdrawal.
T will therefore conclude this statement by
repeating what I have said before ; that but
for Mrs. Besant's interruption I would have
concluded my speech within a few minutes
and no possible misconception about my views
on anarchism would have arisen.
85
INDENTURED LABOUR
The question of indentured labour is a
seasonable subject for more reasons than one.
Messrs. Andrews and Pearson have just re-
turned from Fiji after finishing their self-
imposed labours for the sake of India which
they have learnt to love as they love their
motherland. Their report is about to be issued.
There Mr. Malaviya has given notice for leave
to move a resolution in the Imperial Council
which will if adopted, commit the Government
to a repeal of the system of indentured labour.
Mr. Malaviya's resolution will be, it may be
decided, a continuation of the late Mr.
Gokhale's work in 1912, when in a speech full
of fervour and weighted with facts and figures
he moved his resolution demanding repeal of
this form of labour. The deceased stateman's
resolution was thrown out only by the force
of official majority. The moral victory lay
with Mr. Gokhale. The deathknell of the
system was rung when that resolution was
moved. The Government, as it could not then
86
87
<
u
>
w
Di
i" a
3 •
iH
Indentured Labour
abolish the system, outvoted Mr. Gokhale but
did not fail to note that they must hurry
forward to do so at an early date. Mr. Mala-
viya's proposed resolution and the report of
Messrs. Andrews and Pearson, which latter,
it is known, is to suggest total abolition of the
system, will enable Lord Hardinge fittingly
to close his most eventful viceroyalty remov-
ing this longstanding and acknowledged
grievance.
These lines will be merely an attempt to
give personal observations and to indulge in a
few reflections upon the question. For facts
and figures the reader and the public worker
must look up Mr. Gokhale's speech referred
to above and Messrs. Andrews and Pearson's
forthcoming report.
Indentured labour is admittedly a remnant
of slavery. The late Sir William Wilson
Hunter, when his attention was drawn to it in
1895, was the first to call it a state perilously
near to slavery. Most legislation only partly
reflects the public opinion cf its time. Legis-
lation abolishing slavery was really a bit in
advance of public opinion, and that was a big
bit. And its effect, like that of all such legis-
lation was largely neutralised by the dissatis-
■ 87
r^l. K. Gandhi
"fied slave-owners resorting to the dodge of
indentured labour. The yoke, if it fell from
the Negro's black neck, was transferred to the
brown neck of the Indian. In the process of
transfer, it had somewhat to be somewhat
polished, it had to be lightened in weight and
even disguised. Nevertheless in all its essen-
tials it retained its original quality. The
hideousness of the system was forcefully
demonstrated when the curse descended upon
South Africa in the shape of indentured
labourers from China for working the gold
mines. It was no mere election cry that the
late Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman had
taken up when he made the British Isles from
•end to end ring with denunciation of the
system. No cost was counted as too great
for ridding South Africa of the evil. The
great multimillionaires of Johannesburgh
spared nothing to be enabled to hold to the
indentured Chinaman, They asked for breath-
ing-time. The House of Commons remained
unmoved. Mine-owners had to shift for them-
selves. The interest of humanity overrode
all other considerations. The mines were
threatened to be closed. The House did not
care. The millions promised to Mr. Chamber-
88
Indentured Labour
lain would not be forthcoming. The House
laughed. Within six months of passage of
the measure for the abolition of Chinese
indentured labour, every Chinese labourer
had been repatriated bag and baggage. The
mines survived the shock. They discovered
other methods of life. A.nd now be it said to
the credit of the mine-owners as well as of
the Conservatives who opposed the measure,
that both these classes recognise that the
abolition was a great deliverance.
Indian indentured labours is not less demo-
ralising. It has persisted because its bitter-
ness like that of a sugared pill has been
cleverly though unconsciously concealed.
The one great distinction between the two
classes was that the Chinese were brought in
without a single woman with them, whereas
^€very hundred Indian labourers must include
forty women among them. Had the Chinese
remained they would have sapped the very
foundations of the society. The Indian
labourers confine the evil to themselves. This
may be unimportant to non-Indians. But for
us, the wonder is that we have allowed the sin
to continue so long. The business about the
women is the. weakest and the irremediable
' 89
M. K. Gandhi
part of the evil. It therefore needs a some-
what closer inspection. These women are
not necessarily wives. Men and women are
huddled together during the voyage. The
marriage is a farce. A mere declaration by
man and woman made upon landing before
the Protector of immigrants that they are
husband and wife constitutes a valid marriage.
Naturally enough divorce is common. The
rest must be left to the imagination of the
reader. This is certain — that the system does
not add to the moral well-being of India. And
it is suggested that no amount of figures
adduced to show that the labourer is far
richer at the end of his contract of labour than
when he entered upon it can be allowed to
be any set-off against the moral degradation
it involves.
There is another most powerful consideration
to be urged against the continuance of this
system. The relations between Englishmen
and Indians in India are not of the happiest.
The average Englishman considers himself to
be superior to the average Indian and the
latter is generally content to be so considered.
Such a state of things is demoralising to both
and a meance to the stability, of the British
90 '
Indentured Labour
Empire. There is no reason why every
Englishman should not learn to consider every
Indian as his brother and w^hy should not
every Indian cease to think that he is born to
fear every Englishman. Be that as it may,
this unnatural relationship is reflected in an
exaggerated form outside India when the
artificial state of indentured service under
a white employer is set up. Unless, therefore,
the relation between the English and ourselves
is put on a correct footing in India, and trans-
ference of Indian labourers to far off lands
whether parts of the Empire or otherwise,
even under a free contract must harm both
employer and employed. I happen to have
the privilege of knowing most humane
employers of Indian labourers in Natal.
They were their men. But they do not,
they cannot give them more than the most
favoured treatment that their cattle receive. I
use this language in no uncharitable spirit.
The humanest of employers cannot escape
the limitations of his class. He instinctively
feels that the Indian labourer is inferior to him
and can never be equal to him. Surely no
indentured Indian, no matter how clever and
faithfull he may be, has ever inherited his
^ 91
M. K. Gandhi
■master's state. But I know English servants
who have risen to their master's state even
as Indian servants have risen to their Indian
master's state. It is not the Englishman's fault
that the relationship with his Indian employees
has not been progressive. It is beyond the scope
of these lines to distribute the blame, if there is
any, on either side or to examine the causes
for the existence of such a state of things.
1 have been obliged to advert to it to show
that apart from all other considerations, the
system of indentured labour is demonstrably
so degrading to us as a nation that it must be
stopped at any cost and that now.
92
THE NEED OF INDIA.
[Mr. M. K. Gandhi delivered an address to the
students at the Y. M, C. A. auditorium, Madras
(1915) with the Hon. Rev, G. Pitiendrigh in the chair,
in the course of which he said] : —
I did not know what subject to choose. A
friend has handed me a slip here, asking me
whether I would not enlighten the students
on the Benares incident. I fear that I shall
have to disappoint that friend and those of you
who associate yourselves with that view. I do
not think you need lay any stress upon that
incident. Those are the passing waves which
will always come and go. I would rather this
morning, if I can possibly do so, pour my soul
out to you with reference to something which
I treasure so much above everything else. To
many students who came to me last year, I
said I was about to establish an Ashrama
somewhere in India, and it is about that place
that I am going to talk to you to-day.
THE NEED OF INDIA
I have felt during the whole of my public
life that what- we need, what any Nation
^ 93
M. K. Gandhi
needs, but we perhaps of all the other Nations
of the world need just now, is nothing else and
nothing less than character-building. You
know that Mr. Gokhale used so often to say-
that our average was less than the average
of so many European Nations. I do not know
whether that statement of him, whom with
pride I consider to be my political Guru, has
really foundation in fact. But I do believe
that there is much to be said to justify that
statement in so far as the educated India is
concerned, not because the educated portion
of the community blundered, but because we
have been creatures of circumstances. Be
that as it may ; this is the maxim of life which
I have accepted, namely, that no work done
by any man, no matter how great he is, will
really prosper unless it has a religious backing^
By religion, I do not mean the religion which
you will get after reading all the scriptures of
the world ; it is not really a grasp by the brain,
but it is the heart-grasp. It is a thing which
is not evident to us, but it is a thing which is
evolved out of us ; it is always within us, with
some, consciously so, with the others quite
unconsciously, but it is there, and whether we
wake up this religious instinct in us through
94
The Need of India
outside assistance or by inward growth, no
matter how it is done, it has got to be done
if we want to do anything in the right manner
and anything that is going to persist. Our
scriptures have laid down certain rules as
maxims of life, which we have to take for
granted, and believing in these maxims impli-
citly for all these long years and having
actually endeavoured to reduce to practice
those injunctions of the Shastras, I have
deemed it necessary to seek the association of
those who think with m.e in founding this
Institution. I shall place before you this
morning the rules that have been drawn up
and that have to be observed by everyone who
seeks to be a member of that Ashrama.
VOW OF TRUTH
There are five rules known as Yamas, and
the first is the vow of truth, not truth as we
ordinarily understand it, but truth which
means that we have to rale our life by the
law of truth at any cost, and in order to satisfy
the definition I have drawn upon the celebrated
illustration of the life of Prahalada, who, for
the sake of truth, dared to 6ppose his own
father. In this- Ashrama we make it a rule
> 95
M. K. Gandhi
that we must say no when we mean no,,
regardless of consequences.
VOW OF AHIMSA
The next rule is the vow of Ahimsa, which
means non-killing. To me, it has a world of
meaning, and takes me into realms much
higher than the realms to which I would go
if I merely understood Ahimsa to mean non-
killing. Ahimsa really means that you may
not offend anybody, you may not harbour
an uncharitable thought even in connection
with one who may consider himself to be your
enemy. For one who follows the doctrine-
of Ahimsa, there is no room for the enemy.
Under this rule, there is no room for organised
assassination, and there is no room for murders
even openly committed, and there is no room
for violence even for the sake of your country
and even for guarding the honour of precious-
ones that may be under your charge. This
doctrine of Ahimsa tells us that we may guard
the honour of those who are under our charge
by delivering ourselves into the hands of the
men who would commit the sacrilege, and that
requires far greater physical and mental
courage than delivering blows. You may
have some degree of physical power — I do not
96
The Need of India
say courage — and you may use that power, but
after it is expended, what happens ? The man
is wild with wrath and indignation, and you
have made him wilder by matching your
violence against his, and when he has done
you to death, the rest of his violence is
delivered on to your charge ; but if you do not
retaliate but simply stand your ground to-
receive all the blows and stand between your
charge and the opponent, what happens ? I
give you my promise that the whole violence
will be expended on you, and your charge will
be left sacred.
VOW OF CELIBACY
Those who want to perform National
Service or those who want to have the glimpse
of real religious life must lead a celibate life»
whether married or unmarried. Marriage
brings a woman close together with a man^
and they become friends in a special sense,
never to be parted either in this life or in the
lives that are to come ; but I do not think that
into that plane of life our lusts should
necessarily enter.
CONTROL OF PALATES
Then there is the vow of the control of the
palates. A man who wants to control his
N 97
7
M. K. Gandhi
animal passion easily does so without even
noticing that he does so. Without being a
slave to his palate, he will master his palate.
This is one of the most diificult vows to follow.
I am just now coming from having inspected
the Victoria Hostel, and I saw to my dismay
that there are so many kitchens, not kitchens
that are established in order to serve caste
restrictions, but kitchens that have become
necessary in order that we can have condiments
and the exact weight of condiments, to which
we were used in the respective countries
or the places or Provinces from which we have
come. For the Brahmanas themselves there
are different compartments and different
kitchens catering after the delicate tastes of
those different groups. T suggest to you that
this is simply slavery to the palate rather
than mastery of the palate. Unless we are
satisfied with foods that are necessary for the
proper maintenance of our physical health,
and unless we are prepared to rid ourselves of
those stimulating and heating and exciting
condiments that we mix with our food, we will
certainly not be able to control the over-
abundant unnecessary exciting energy that we
may have. Eating and drinking and indulging
98
The Need of India
in passion, we share in common with the
animals, but have you seen a horse, a cow
indulging in palate to the excess that we do ?
Do you suppose that it is a sign of civilisation,
a sign of actual life that we should multiply
our eatables so far that we do not know where
we are ?
VOW OF NON -THIEVING
The next rule is the vow of non-thieving.
We are theives in a way if we take anything
that we do not need for immediate use, and
keep it from some body else who needs it. It
is a fundamental law of Nature, that Nature
produces enough for our wants from day to-day,
and if only every body took only enough for
him and no more, there will be no poverty in
the world, and there will be no man dying
of starvation in this world. And so long as we
have got this inequality, so long I shall have
to say we are thieves. I am no socialist, and
I do not want to dispossess those who have got
possessions, but I do say that personally those
of us who want to see darkness out of
light have to follow this doctrine. In India,
we have three millions of people having to
be satisfied with only one meal consisting of a
^ 99
M. K. Gaitdhi
chapati containing no fat in it and a pinch
of salt.
VOW OF SWADESHI
The vow of Swadeshi is a necessary vow. I
suggest to you that we are departing from one
of the sacred laws of our being when we leave
our neighbour and go somewhere else to
satisfy our wants. If a man comes from
Bombay here and offers you wares, you are not
justified in supporting the Bombay merchant
or trader so long as you have got a merchant
at your very door born and bred in Madras.
That is my view of Swadeshi, In your village,
so long as you have a village barber, you
are bound to support the village barber to the
exclusion of the finished barber that may come
to you from Madras. Train your village
barber by all means to reach the attainment of
the barber from Madras, but until he does so,
you are not justified in going to the Madras
barber. When we find that there are many
things we cannot get, we try to do without
them. We may have to do without so many
things which to-day we consider necessary,
and believe me when you have that frame of
mind, you will find a great burden taken off
100
The Need of India
your shoulders even as the pilgrim did in that
inimitable book Pilgrim's Progress.
VOW OF FEARLESSNESS
I found through my wanderings in India
that all educated India is seized with a paraly-
sing fear. We may not open our lips in public*
We may not declare our confirmed opinions in
public. We may hold those opinions, and we
may talk about them secretly, and we may do
anything within the four walls of a house, but
those opinions are not for public consumption.
If we took a vow of silence, I would have
nothing to say, but when we open our lips in
public we say things which we really do not
believe. I do not know whether this is not the
•experience of almost every one who speaks in
public. I then suggest to you that there is
only one Being, if Being is the proper term to
be applied, whom we have to fear, and that is
God. If you want to follow the vow of truth
in any shape or form, fearlessness is the
necessary consequence.
UNTO0CHA.BLES
We have also a vow in connection with the
untouchables. There is an ineffaceable blot
which Hinduism carries with it to-day. I
Slave declined to believe that it has been
' 101
M. K. Gandhi
handed to us from immemorial times. I think
that these miserable, wretched, enslaving^
spirits of untouchables must have come
to us when we were in a cycle of our
lives at our lowest ebb, and that evil has
stuck to us, and it remains with us. It is to
my mind a curse that has come to us, and so
long as it remains with us, we are bound to
consider that every affliction that we labour
under in this sacred land is a fit and proper
punishment for the great crime that we are
committing. That any person should be
considered untouchable because of his calling
passes one's comprehension, and you, the
student world, who receive all this modern
education, if you become a party to this crime,
it were better that you receive no education
whatsoever. We are labouring under a heavy
handicap. You, although you may realise
that there cannot be a single human being on
this earth who should be considered to be
untouchable, you cannot react upon your
families and upon your surroundings, because
all your thought is conceived in a foreign
tongue. So we have introduced a rule in the
Ashrama that we shall receive our education
through the Vernaculars. In order to solve-
102 '
The Need of India
the problem of languages in India, we in the
Ashraraa make it a point of learning as many
Indian Vernaculars as we possibly can, and
I assure you that the trouble of learning these
languages is nothing compared to the trouble
that we have to take in mastering the English
language. Even after all that trouble, it is
not possible for us to express ourselves in the
English language as clearly as in our own
mother tongue. Education has enabled us to
see the horrible crime in connection with the
so-called untouchables, but we are seized with
fear, and we have got our superstitious venera-
tion for our family traditions and for the
members of our families.
POLITICS
Last of all, when you have conformed to
these rules, I think then, and not till then, you
may come to politics and dabble in them to
your heart's content. Politics divorced from
religions, have absolutely no meaning, and
if the student world crowd the political
platforms of the country, to my mind, it is not
necessarily a healthy sign of national growth ;
but that does not mean that we in student-
life ought not to learn politics. Politics are
also a part of .our being. We want to under-
' 103
M. K. Gandhi
stand our national institutions, we ought to
understand our national growth. So, in the
Ashraraa, every child is taught to understand
political institutions, and know how the
country is vibrating with new emotions, with
new aspirations, with new life ; but we want
also the infallible light of religious faith, not
faith which merely appeals to the intelligence,
but faith which is indelibly inscribed in the
heart. To-day what happens is that immedi-
ately young men cease to be students they
sink into oblivion, and they seek miserable
employments, carrying miserable emoluments,
knowing nothing of God, knowing nothing
of fresh air and fresh light, and knowing
nothing of that real vigorous independence
that comes out of obedience to those laws that
I have placed before you.
CONCLUSION
I am not here asking you to crowd into the
Ashrama — there is no room there. But I say
that every one of you may enact that Ashrama
life individually and collectively. I shall be
satisfied with anything that you may choose
from the rules I have ventured to place before
you and act up to it. But if you think
that these are the outpourings of a mad man,
104
The Need of India
you will not hesitate to tell me that it is so,
and I shall take that judgment from you
'Undismayed, (Loud cheers.)
• 105
SOCIAL SERVICE
[The anniversary meeting of the *Social Service
League, Madras^ (1916) was held at the quadrangle of
the Christian College, the Anderson Hall having been
found insufficient to accommodate the immensely
large gathering which had begun to assemble from an
early hour. Mrs. Whitehead presided. Bishop White-
head teas also present. Mr. Gandhi having been
called upon by Mrs. Whitehead to address the meeting
said] : —
For social service as for any other service on
the face of this earth, there is one condition
indispensable, viz., proper qualifications on the
part of those who want to render social service
or any other service, and so we shall ask
ourselves this evening whether those of us
who are already engaged in this kind of
service and those who aspire to render that
service possess those necessary qualifications,
because you will agree with me that servants
if they can mend matters, they can also spoil
matters, and in trying to do service, however
well-intentioned that service might be, if they
are not qualified for that service, they will be-
rendering not service but disservice.
106 '
Social Service
THE SOCIAL SERVANT
What are those qualifications ? I imagine I
could almost repeat to you the qualifications
that I described this morning to the students
in the Y. M. C. A. Hall, because they are of
universal application, and they are necessary
for any class of work, and much more so in
social service at this time of tha day in our
national life, in our dear country. It seems
to me that we do require truth in the one
hand and fearlessness in the other hand.
Unless we carry the torchlight of truth we
shall not see the state in front, and unless we
carry the quality of fearlessness we shall not
be able to give the message that we might
want to give on proper occasions, when the
occasion for testing us comes, and such
occasions do not occur so often as they might
imagine they come but rarely. They are
special privileges, and unless we have this
fearlessness, I feel sure that when that
supreme final test comes we shall be found
wanting ; and then I ask, and I ask you to
ask yourselves, whether those of you, who are
engaged in this service and those of you, who
want hereafter to engage in this service, have
these two qualities. But let me remind you
107
M. K. Gandhi
also that these two qualities may be trained
in us in a manner detrimental to ourselves
and in a manner detrimental to those with
whom we may come in contact. That is a
dangerous statement almost to make, but
when I make that statement I would like you
to consider that truth comes not as truth but
only as truth so called. You will recall the
instance of Ravana and Rama. You will
recall the instance of Lakshmana on the one
hand and Indrajit on the other in that
inimitable book Raviaijona. Both Lakshmana
and Indrajit performed austerities, both of
them had attained to a certain kind of self-
control, and yet we find that what Indrajit
possessed was as mere dross and that what
Lakshman possessed was of great assistance
and he has left a treasure for us to cherish
and to value. What was that additional
quality that Lakshmana possessed ? I venture
to suggest to you that Lakshmana was divinely
guided, that he had religious perception and
that his life was guided upon principle and
based upon religion, while, that of Indrajit
was based upon irreligion. Life without
religion, I hold, is life without principle, and
life without principle, is like a ship without a
108
Social Service
rudder ; and just as a ship without a rudder-
will be tossed about from place to place, and
never reach its destination, so will a man
without this religious backing, without that
hard grasp of religion be also tossed about on
this stormy ocean of the world, without ever
reaching his destined goal. And so I suggest
to every social servant that he may not run
away with the idea that he will serve his
fellow-countrymen unless he got those two
qualities duly sanctified by religious percep-
tion, by a life so far divinely guided.
VILLAGE SANITATION
Our Chair Lady was good enough to take
me to a village that is just behind the com-
pound of the Bishop's house. It is a Pariah
village. She described to me the condition
that little village was in before this League
commenced its operations there, and I am an
eyewitness to what that village is to-day, and
I make myself bold to state that that village
is a model of cleanliness and order, and it
is certainly much cleaner than some of the
busiest and the most central parts of Madras.
That is an undoubtedly creditable piece of
work on the part of the Social Service League,
and if the League can penetrate into the
• 109
M. K. Gandhi
recesses of Madras and do the same kind
of work, the things which I have noticed in
Madras will be conspicuous by their absence
-when I next pay my visit to this great city. It
is not enough that we clean out the villages
occupied by our Pariah brethren. If they are
amenable to reason, to persuasion, shall we
have to say that the so-called highest classes
are not equally amenable to reason, to
persuasion and are not amenable to the hygenic
laws which are indispensable in order to live a
city life ? We may do many things with
impunity when we have got vast acres of open
ground to surround us, but when we transport
ourselves to crowded streets where we have
hardly air space enough to give our lungs
the proper quantity of air, the life becomes
-changed and we have to obey another set of
laws.
It is no use saddling the Municipality with
responsibility for the conditions in which we
find not only the central parts of Madras, but
the conditions in which we find the central
parts of every city in India without exception
— and I have gone now to almost every city of
importance in India. I feel that no Munici-
pality in the world will be abl^ to override the
110
Social Service
habits that a class of people may have in them,
and have been handed down to them from
generation to generation. It is work that can
be done only by patient toil and guidance, with
those two immutable weapons in our hands. It
can be done only by such bodies as a Social
Service League. If we are pulsating with the
new life, with the new vision which shall
open before us in the near future, I think
there are signs which will be an indication to
show that we are pulsating with a new
life which is going to be a proper life for
us, which will add dignity to our Nationality
and which will carry the banner of progress
forward. I therefore suggest to you that the
question of sanitary reform in this big city is
-practically a hopeless task if we expect our
Municipality to do it unaided by this voluntary
work. Far be it from me to absolve the
Municipality from their responsibility. I think
.that there is still a great deal left to be done
hy the Municipality.
BENARES
Mr. Gandhi then proceeded to deal with the
great need for the work of a Social Service
League in such a sacred city as Benares,
where there was a mass of dirt and confusion
* 111
M. K. Gandhi
and want of orderliness so much detrimental
to the preservation of the holiness and sanc-
tity of the place. What was true of the Kashi
temple was true of a majority of their Hindu
temples. Such problems could not be solved
so successfully by the Government or Munici-
pality as by voluntary bodies like the Social
Service League. Those who took up League
work ought to be nurtured in new traditions.
They were filled with horror at many evils
they witnessed, and that was a position that
stared Social Service Leagues in the face
throughout the length and breadth of India.
SCHOOL AND FAMILY LIFE
Much of the neglect of such work, Mr.
Gandhi pointed out, was due to the condition
of the country at present, when the school life
was not an extension of family life, and if that
were so, students would respond and analyse
the difficulties that faced them and they would
still be going to temples while they were
at the same time visiting temples. Before
students could take up such work in this
country, the educational system would have to
be revolutionalised. They were to-day in a
hopelessly false position, and they would incur
the curse of the next generation for the great
112
Social Service
tragedy they saw being enacted before them
to-day. It was a matter for thinking and it
was a matter for redressing, no matter how
difficult of attainment the result might be
to-day. The task was herculean, but if the
task was herculean the reward that they
would receive from the blessings of generations
to come would be an adequate reward.
The lecturer then dealt with the need for
work on the part of Social Service Leagues in
order to ameliorate the condition of third
class passengers in railway carriages, so as to
minimise overcrowding, discomfort and fatigue
and what not.
In conclusion the lecturer said that if those
who undertook social service would carry
courage with them wherever they went, their
efforts would be crowned with success.
113
SWA.DESHI
[A Paper read before the Missionary Conference,
Madras, 1916.]
It was not without much diffidence that I
undertook to speak to you at all. And I was
hard put to it in the selection of my subject. I
have chosen a very delicate and difficult
subject. It is delicate because of the peculiar
views I hold upon Swadeshi, and it is difficult
because I have not that command of language
which is necessary for giving adequate expres-
sion to my thoughts. I know that I may rely
upon your indulgence for the many shortcom-
ings you will no doubt find in my address, the
more so when I tell you that there is nothing
in what I am about to say that I am not
either already practising or am not preparing
to practise to the best of my ability. It
encourages me to observe that last month you
devoted a week to prayer in the place of
an address. I have earnestly prayed that
what I am about to say may bear fruit, and I
know that you wijj bless my word with a
similar prayer.
114
Swadeshi
After much thiaking I have arrived at a
definition of Swadeshi that perhaps best illus-
trates my meaning. Swadeshi is that spirit in
us which restricts us to the use and service of
our immediate surroundings to the exclusion
of the more remote- Thus, as for religion, in
order to satisfy the requirements of the defini-
tion, I must restrict myself to my ancestral
religion. That is the use of my immediate
religious surrounding. If 1 find it defective I
should serve it by purging it of its defects. In
the domain of politics I should make use of the
indigenous institutions and serve them by
curing them of their proved defects. In that of
economics I should use only things that are
produced by my immediate neighbours and
serve those industries by making them efficient
and complete where they might be found
wanting. It is suggested that such Swadeshi,
if reduced to practice, will lead to the millen-
nium. And as we do not abandon our pursuit
after the millennium because we do not expect
quite to reach it within our times, so may we
not abandon Swadeshi even though it may not
be fully attained for generations to come.
Let us briefly examine the three branches
of Swadeshi as sketched above. Hinduism
115
M. K. Gaudhi
has become a conservative religion and there-
fore a mighty force because of the Swadeshi
spirit underlying it. It is the most tolerant
because it is non-proselytising, and it is as-
capable of expansion to-day as it has been
found to be in the past. It has succeeded
not in driving, as I think it has been
erroneously held, but in absorbing Buddhism.
By reason of the Swadeshi spirit a Hindu,
refuses to change his religion not necessarily
because he considers it to be the best, but
because he knows that he can complement it
by introducing reforms. And what I have said
about Hinduism is, I suppose, true of the other
great faiths of the world, only it is held that it
is specially so in the case of Hinduism. But
here comes the point I am labouring to reach.
If there is any substance in what I have said,,
will not the great missionary bodies of
India, to whom she owes a deep debt of
gratitude for what they have done and
are doing, do still better and serve the spirit
of Christianity better by dropping the goal,
of proselytising but continuing their phil-
anthropic work ? I hope you will not consider
this to be an impertinence on my part. I
make the suggestion in all sincerity and
116
Swadeshi
with due humility. Moreover, I have some
claim upon yoar attention. I have endea-
voured to study the Bible. I consider it
as part of my scriptures. The spirit of the
Sermon on the Mount competes almost on
equal terms with the Bhagavad-Gita for the
domination of my heart. I yield to no
Christian in the strength of devotion with
which I sing " Lead kindly light" and several
other inspired hymns of a similar nature.
I have come under the influence of noted
Christian missionaries belonging to different
denominations. And I enjoy to this day the
privilege of friendship with some of them. You
will, perhaps, therefore allow that I have
offered the above suggestion not as a biased
Hindu but as a humble and impartial student
of religion with great leanings towards
Christianity. May it not be that " Go Ye
Unto All The World" message has been
somewhat narrowly interpreted and the spirit
of it missed ? It will not be denied, I speak
from experience, that many of the conversions
are only so-called. In some cases the appeal
has gone not to the heart but to the stomach.
And in every case a conversion leaves a sore
behind it which,, I venture to think, is avoid-
'117
M. K. Gandhi
able. Quoting again from experience, a new
birth, a change of heart, is perfectly possible
in every one of the great faiths. I know I am
now treading upon thin ice. But I do not
apologise, in closing this part of my subject,
for saying that the frightful outrage that is
just going on in Europe, perhaps, shows that
the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son
of Peace, had been little understood in Europe,
and that light upon it may have to be thrown
from the East.
I have sought your help in religious matters,
which it is yours to give in a special sense.
But I make bold to seek it even in political
matters. I do not believe that religion
has nothing to do with politics. The latter,
divorced from religion, is like a corpse only
fit to be buried. As a matter of fact in your
own silent manner you influence politics not
a little. And I feel that if the attempt to
separate politics from religion had not been
made as it is even now made, they would not
have degenerated as they often appear to do.
No one considers that the political life of the
country is in a happy state. Following out
the Swadeshi spirit I observe the indigenous
institutions and the village panchayats hold
118
Swadeshi
me, India is really a republican country,
and it is because it is that that it has survived
every shock hitherto delivered. Princes and
potentates, whether they were Indian born or
foreigners, have hardly touched the vast masses
except for collecting revenue. The latter in
their turn seem to have rendered unto Caesar's
what was Caesar's and for the rest have done
much as they have liked. The vast organisation
of caste answered not only the religious wants
of the community, but it answered too its
political needs. The villagers managed their
internal affairs through the caste system, and
through it they dealt with any oppression from
the ruling power or powers. It is not possible
to deny of a nation that was capable of
producing the caste system its wonderful
power of organisation. One had but to attend
the great Kumbha Mela at Hardwar last year
to know how skilful that organisation must
have been, which, without any seeming effort,
was able effectively to cater for more than
a million pilgrims. Yet it is the fashion to
say that we lack organising ability. This is
true, I fear, to a certain extent, of those who
have been nurtured in the new traditions.
We have laboured under a terrible handicap
' 119
M. K. Gandhi
owing to an almost fatal departure from
the Swadeshi spirit. We, the educated classes,
have received our education through a foreign
tongue. We have therefore, not reacted
upon the masses. We want to represent the
masses, but we fail. They recognise us
not much more than they recognise the
English ofl&cers. Their hearts are an open
book to neither. Their aspirations are not
ours. Hence there is a break. And you
witness not in reality failure to organise but
want of correspondence between the represen-
tatives and the represented. If, during the
last fifty years, we had been educated through
the vernaculars, our elders and our servants
and our neighbours would have partaken
of our knowledge ; the discoveries of a Bose
or a Ray would have been household treasures
as are the Ramayan and the Mahabharat. As
it is, so far as the masses are concerned, those
great discoveries might as well have been
made by foreigners. Had instruction in ail
the branches of learning been given through
the Vernaculars, I make bold to say that they
would have been enriched wonderfully. The
question of village sanitation, etc., would have
been solved long ago. The village Pancha yats
120 '
Swadeshi
would be now a living force in a special way,
and India would almost be enjoying Self-
Government suited to its requirements and
would have been spared the humiliating
spectacle of organised assassination on its
sacred soil. It is not too late to mend. And
you can help if you will, as no other body or
bodies can.
And now for the last division of Swadeshi.
Much of the deep poverty of the masses is due
to the ruinous departure from Swadeshi in the
economic and industrial life. If not an article
of commerce had been brought from outside
India, she would be to-day a land flowing with
milk and honey. But that was not to be. We
were greedy and so was England. The con-
nection between England and India was based
clear upon an error. But she does not remain
in India in error. It is her declared policy
that India is to be held in trust for her people.
If this be true, Lancashire must stand aside.
And if the Swadeshi doctrine is a sound doc-
trine, Lancashire can stand aside without
hurt, though it may sustain a shock for the
'time being. I think of Swadeshi not as a boy-
cott movement undertaken by way of revenge.
I conceive it ^s a religious principle to be
121
M. K. Gandhi
followed by all. I am no economist, but I have
read some treatises which show that England
could easily become a self-sustained country,
growing all the produce she needs. This may
be an utterly ridiculous proposition, and per-
haps the best proof that it cannot be true is
that England is one of the largest importers in
the world. But India cannot live for Lan"
cashire or any other country before she is able
to live for herself. And she can live for her-
self only if she produces and is helped to pro-
duce every thing for her requirements within
her own borders. She need not be, she ought
not to be, drawn into the vortex of mad and
ruinous competition which breeds fratricide,
jealousy and many other evils. But who is to
stop her great millionaries from entering into
the world competition ? Certainly not legisla-
tion. Force of public opinion, proper educa-
tion, however, can do a great deal in the
desired direction. The hand-loom industry is
in a dying condition. I took special care
during my wanderings last year to see as many
weavers as possible, and my heart ached to
find how they had lost, how families had retired
from this one flourishing and honourable occu-
pation. If we follow the SwaderShi doctrine, it
122
Swadeshi
would be your duty and mine to find out neigh-
bours who can supply our wants and to teach
them to supply them where they do not know
how to, assuming that there are neighbours
who are in want of healthy occupation. Then
every village of India will almost be a self-
supporting and self-contained unit, exchanging
only such necessary commodities with other
villages where they are not locally producible.
This may all sound nonsensical. Well, India
is a country of nonsense. It is nonsensical to
parch one's throat with thirst when a kindly
Muhammadan is ready to offer pure water to
drink. And yet thousands of Hindus would
rather die of thirst than drink water from a
Muhammadan household. These nonsensical
men can also, once they are convinced that
their religion demands that they should wear
garments manufactured in India only and eat
food only grown in India, decline to wear any
other clothing or eat any other food. Lord
Curzon set the fashion for tea-drinking, j^nd
that pernicious drug now bids fair to over-
whelm the nation. It has already undermined
the digestive apparatus of hundreds of thou-
sands of men and women and constitutes an
additional ta:j[ upon their slender purses. Lord
123
ill. K. Gandhi
Hardinge can set the fashion for Swadeshi
and almost the whole of India will forswear
foreign goods. There is a verse in the Bhagavat
Gita which, freely rendered, means masses
follow the classes. It is easy to undo the evil
if the thinking portion of the community were
to take the Swadeshi vow, even though it may
for a time cause considerable inconvenience.
I hate legislative interference in any depart-
ment of life. At best it is the lesser evil. But
I would tolerate, welcome, indeed plead for
a stiff protective duty upon foreign goods.
Natal, a British colony, protected its sugar by
taxing the sugar that came from another
British colony, Mauritius. England has sinned
against India by forcing free trade upon her.
It may have been food for her, but it has been
poison for this country.
It has often been urged that India cannot
adopt Swadeshi in the economic life at any
rate. Those who advance this objection do
not look upon Swadeshi as a rule of life. With
them it is a mere patriotic effort not to be
made if it involved any self-denial. Swadeshi,
as defined here, is a religious discipline to
be undergone in utter disregard of the physical
discomfort it may cause to individuals. Under
124
Swadeshi
its spell the deprivation of a pin or a needle,,
because these are not manufactured in India,
need cause no terror. A Swadeshist will learn
to do without hundreds of things which to-day-
he considers necessary. Moreover, those who
dismiss the Swadeshi from their minds by
arguing the impossible forget that Swadeshi,,
after all, is a goal to be reached by steady
effort. And we would be making for the goal
even if we confined Swadeshi to a given set of
articles allowing ourselves as a temporary
measure to use such things as might not be
procurable in the country.
There now remains for me to consider one
more objection that has been raised against
Swadeshi. The objectors consider it to be a.
most selfish doctrine without any warrant in
the civilised code of morality. With them to
practise Swadeshi is to revert to barbarism. I
cannot enter into a detailed analysis of the
proposition. But I would urge that Swadeshi
is the only doctrine consistent with the law of
humility and love. It is arrogance to think of
launching out to serve the whole of India
when I am hardly able to serve even my own
family. It were better to concentrate my
effort upon t,he family and consider that
125
M. K. Gandhi
through them I was serving the whole nation
and if you will the whole of humanity. This
is humility and it is love. The motive will
determine the quality of the act. I may serve
my family regardless of the sufferings I may
cause to others, as for instance, T may accept
an employment which enables me to extort
money from people, I enrich myself thereby
and then satisfy many !!>nlawful demands of
the family. Here I am neither serving the
family nor the State. Or I may recognise
that God has given me hands and feet only to
work with for my sustenance and for that
of those who may be dependent upon me. I
would then at once simplify my life and that
of those whom I can directly reach. In this
instance I would have served the family with-
out causing injury to anyone else. Supposing
that every one followed this mode of life, we
would have at once an ideal state. All will
not reach that state at the same time. But
those of us who, realising its truth, enforce
it in practice will clearly anticipate and
accelerate the coming of that happy day.
Under this plan of life, in seeming to serve
India to the exclusion of every other country,
I do not harm any other country. dMy patriotism
126
Swadeshi
is both exclusive and inclusive. It is exclusive
in the sense that in all humility I confine my
attention to the land of my birth, but it is
inclusive in the sense that my service is not of
a competitive or antagonistic nature. Sic
utere tiio ut alienum non leedas is not merely a
legal maxim, but it is a grand doctrine of life.
It is the key to a proper practice of Ahimsa or
love. It is for you, the custodians of a great
faith, to set the fashion and show by your
preaching, sanctified by practice, that patrio-
tism based on " hatred killeth " and that
patriotism based on " love giveth life."
127
ECONOMIC vs. MORAL PROGRESS
[Mr. M. K. Gandhi delivered an instructive lecture
on " Does economic progress clash with real pro-
gress ?" at a meeting of the Muir Central College
Economic Society held in the Physical Science
Theatre. The Hon. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
presided] ; —
When I accepted Mr. Kapildeva Malaviya's
invitation to speak to you upon the subject of
this evening, I was painfully conscious of ray
limitations. You are an economic society.
"You have chosen distinguished specialists for
the subjects included in your syllabus for this
year and the next. I seem to be the only
speaker ill-fitted for the task set before hira..
Frankly and truly, I know very little of
economics, as you naturally understand
them. Only the other day, sitting at an
evening meal, a civilian friend deluged me
with a series of questions on my crankisms.
As he proceeded in his cross-examination, I
being a willing victim, he found no difficulty
in discovering my gross ignorance of the
matters I appeared to him to be handling with
128
Economic vs. Moral Progress
a cocksuredness worthy only of a man whO'
knows not that he knows not. To his horror
and even indignation, I suppose, he found that
I had not even read books on economics by
such well-known authorities as Mill, Marshall,
Adam Smith and a host of such other authors.
In despair, he ended by advising me to read
these works before experimenting in matters
economic at the expense of the public. He
little knew that I was a sinner past redemp-
tion. My experiments continue at the expense
of trusting friends. For there come to us
moments in life when about somethings we
need no proof from without. A little voice
within us tells, " you are on the right track,
move neither to your left nor right, but keep
to the straight and narrow way." With such
help we march forward slowly indeed, but
surely and steadily. That is my position. It
may be satisfactory enough for me, but it can
in no way answer the requirements of a society
such as yours. Still it was no use my
struggling against Mr. Kapildeva Malaviya.
I knew that he was intent upon having me to
engage your attention for one of your evenings.
Perhaps you will treat my intrusion as a
welcome diversion from the trodden path. An
■ 129
9
M. K. Gandhi
occasional fast after a series of sumptuous
feasts is often a necessity. And as with the
body so, I imagine, is the case with the reason.
And if your reason this evening is found
fasting instead of feasting, I am sure it will
enjoy with the greater avidity the feast that
Rao Bahadur Pandit Chaddrika Prasad has in
store for you for the 12th of January.
Before I take you to the field of my experi-
ences and experiments it is perhaps best to
have a mutual understanding about the title
of this evening's address. Does economic
progress clash with real progress ? By
economic progress, I take it,, we mean material
advancement without limit and by real pro-
gress we mean moral progress, which again is
the same thing as progress of the permanent
element in us. The subject may therefore be
stated thus : Does not moral progress increase
in the same proportion as material progress ?
I know that this is a wider proposition than
the one before us. But I venture to think that
we always mean the larger one even when we
lay down the smaller. For we know enough of
science to realise that there is no such thing
as perfect rest or repose in this visible
universe of ours. If therefore material pro-
130
Economic vs. Moral Progress
gress does not clash with moral progress it
must necessarily advance the latter. Nor can
we be satisfied with the clumsy way in which
sometimes those who cannot defend the larger
proposition put their case. They seem to
be obsessed with the concrete case of thirty
millions of India stated by the late Sir William
Wilson Hunter to be living on one meal
a day. They say that before we can
think or talk of their moral welfare we
must satisfy their daily wants. With these,
they say, material progress spells moral pro-
gress. And then is taken a sudden jump:
what is true of thirty millions is true of the
universe. They forget that hard cases make
bad law. I need hardly say to you how ludi-
crously absurd this deduction would be. No
one has ever suggested that grinding pauperism
can lead to anything else than moral degrada-
tion. Every human being has a right to live,
and therefore to find the where withal to feed
himself and, where necessary, to clothe and
house himself. But for this very simple per-
formance we need no assistance from econo-
mists or their laws.
" Take no thought for the morrow " is an
injunction which finds an echo in almost all
131
M. K. Gandhi
the religious scriptures of the world. In well-
ordered society the securing of one's livelihood
should be and is found to be the easiest thing
in the world. Indeed the test of orderliness
in a country is not the number of millionaries
it owns, but the absence of starvation among
its masses. The only statement that has to be-
examined is whether it can be laid down as a
law of universal application that material
advancement means moral progress.
Now let us take a few illustrations. Rome
suffered a moral fall when it attained high^
material affluence. So did Egypt, and so per-
haps most countries of which we have any
historical record. The descendants and kins-
men of the royal and divine Krishna too fell
when they were rolling in riches. We do not
deny to the Rocksfellers and the Carnegies
possession of an ordinary measure of morality
but we gladly judge them indulgently. I mean
that we do not even expect them to satisfy the-
highest standard of morality. With them
material gain has not necessarily meant moral
gain. In South Africa where I had the pri-
vilege of associating with thousands of our
countrymen on most intimate terms, I observ-
ed almost invariably that the greater the pos-
132
Economc vs. Moral Progress
session of riches the greater was their moral
turpitude. Our rich men, to say the least, did
not advance the moral struggle of passive
resistance as did the poor. The rich men's
sense of self respect was not so much injured
as that of the poorest. If I were not afraid of
treading on dangerous ground, I would even
come nearer home, and show you that posses-
sion of riches has been a hindrance to real
^growth. I venture to think that the scriptures
of the world are far safer and sounder treatises
on laws of economics than many of the modern
"text-books. The question we are asking our-
selves this evening is not a new one. It was
addressed to Jesus two thousand years ago.
St. Mark has vividly described the scene.
Jesus is in his solemn mood ; he is earnest.
He talks of eternity. He knows the world
about him. He is himself the greatest econo-
mist of his time. He succeeded in economis-
ing time and space — he transcended them. It
is to him at his best that one comes running,
kneels down, and asks: "Good Master, what
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ? "
And Jesus said unto him : ' Why callest thou
me good ? There is none good but one, that is,
God. Thou krwDwest the commandments. Do
133
M. K. Gandhi
not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour
thy father and mother.' And he answered and
said unto him : ' Master, all these have I
observed from my youth.' Then Jesus behold-
ing him loved him and said unto him : ' One
thing thou lackest. Go thy way, sell whatever
thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shall
have treasure in heaven — come take up the
cross and follow me.' And he was sad at that
saying and went away grieved— for he had
great possessions. And Jesus looked round
about and said unto his disciples : ' How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the king-
dom of God.' And the disciples were 'astoni-
shed at his words. But Jesus answereth again
and saith unto them ' Children, how hard is it
for them that trust in riches to enter into the
kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God ! "
Here you have an eternal rule of life stated in
the noblest words the English language is
capable of producing. But the disciples nodded
unbelief as we do even to this day. To him
they said as we say to day : But look how the
law fails in practice. If we sell all and have
134
Economic vs. Moral Progress
nothing we shall have nothing to eat. We
must have money or we cannot even be
reasonably moral. So they state their case
thus ! " And they were astonished out of
measure, saying among themselves : ' Who
then can be saved'. And Jesus looking upon
them saith : ' With men it is impossible but
not with God, for with God all things are
possible'. Then Peter began to say unto him :
* Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.'
And Jesus answered and said : ' Verily I say
unto you there is no man that has left house or
brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife
or children or lands for my sake and the
Gospel's but he shall receive one hundredfold
now in this time houses and brethren and
sisters and mothers and children and lands
with persecutions, and in the world to come
eternal life. But many that are first shall be
last and the last first.' " You have here the
result or reward, if you prefer the term, of
following the law. I have not taken the
trouble of copying similar passages from the
other non-Hindu scriptures and I will not
insult you by quoting in support of the law
stated by Jesus passages from the writings
and sayings af our own sages, passages even
135
M. K. Gandhi
stronger if possible than tke Biblical extracts.
I have drawn your attention to, perhaps the
strongness of all the testimonies in favour of
the affirmative answer to the question before
us are the lives of the greatest teachers of
the world. Jesus, Mahomed, Buddha, Nanak,
Kabir, Chaitanya, Sankara, Dayanand, Raraa-
krishna were men who exercised an immense
influence over and moulded the character of
thousands of men. The world is the richer
for their having lived in it. And they were
all men who deliberately embraced poverty as
their lot.
I should not have laboured my point as
I have done, if I did not believe that, in so far
as we have made the modern materialistic
craze our goal, in so far are we going down
hill in the path of progress. I hold that
economic progress in the sense I have put it is
antagonistic to real progress. Hence the
ancient ideal has been the limitation of
activities promoting wealth. This does not put
an end to all material ambition. We should
still have as we have always had in our midst
people who make the pursuit of wealth their
aim in life. But we have always recognised
that it is a fall from the id«als. It is a
136
Economic vs. Moral Progress
beautiful thing to know that the wealthiest
among us have often felt that to have remained
voluntarily poor would have been a higher
state for them. That you cannot serve God
and Mammon is an economic truth of the
highest value. We have to make our choice.
Western Nations are to day groaning under
the heel of the monster god of materialism.
Their moral growth has become stunted. They
measure their progress in £ s. d. American
'Wealth has become the standard. She is the
envy of the other Nations. I have heard
many of our countrymen say that we will
gain American wealth but avoid its method.
I venture to suggest that such an attempt if it
were made is foredoomed to failure. We
cannot be " wise, temperate and furious " in a
moment. I would have our leaders to teach
us to be morally supreme in the world. This
land of ours was once, we are told, the abode
of the Gods. It is not possible to conceive
Gods inhabiting a land which is made hideous
by the smoke and the din of mill chimney's
and factories and whose road ways are travers-
ed by rushing engines dragging numerous cars
crowded with men mostly who know not what
they are after, 'who are often absent minded,
137
M. K. Gandhi
and whose tempers do not improve by being
uncomfortably packed like sardines in boxes
and finding themselves in the midst of utter
strangers who would oust them if they could
and, whom they would in their turn oust simi-
larly. I refer to these things because they are
held to be symbolical of material progress.
But they add not an atom to our happiness.
This is what Wallace, the great scientist, has
said as his deliberate judgment. " In the
earliest records which have come down to us
from the past, we find ample indications that
general ethical considerations and conceptions,
the accepted standard of morality, and the
conduct resulting from these, were in no
degree inferior to those which prevail to-day."
In a series of chapters he then proceeds to
examine the position of the English Nation
under the advance in wealth it has made. He
says: "This rapid growth of wealth and in-
crease of our power over nature put too great
a strain upon our crude civilization, on our
superficial Christianity, and it was accom-
panied by various forms of social immorality
almost as amazing and unprecedented." He
then shows how factories have risen on the
corpses of men, women and children, how as
138
Economic vs. Moral Progress
the country has rapidly advanced in riches it
has gone down in morality. He shows this
by dealing with insanitation, life destroying
trades, adulteration, bribery, and gambling.
He shov/s how with the advance of wealth
justice has become immoral, deaths from
alcoholism and suicide have increased, the
average of premature births and congenital
defects has increased and prostitution has
become an institution. He concludes his exa-
mination by these pregnant remarks :
" The proceedings of the divorce courts show
other aspects of the result of wealth and
leisure while a friend who had been a good
deal in London society assured me that both
in country houses and in London various
kinds of orgies were occasionally to be met
with which would hardly have been surpassed
in the period of the most dissolute Emperors.
O War, too, I need say nothing. It has always
been more or less chronic since the rise of the
Roman Empire ; but there is now undoubtedly
a disinclination for war among all civilized
peoples. Yet the vast burden of armaments
taken together with the most pious declara-
tions in favour of peace, must be held to show
an almost totaj absence of morality as a
139
M. K. Gandhi
guiding principle among the governing
classes."
Under the British aegis we have learnt
-much, but it is my firm belief that there is
little to gain from Britain's intrinsic morality
that if we are not careful, we shall introduce
all the vices that she has been a prey to,
•owing to the disease of materialism. We can
profit by that connection only if we keep our
civilisation, and our morals straight, /.»?., if
instead of boasting of the glorious past, we
express the ancient moral glory in our own
lives and let our lives bear witness to our past.
Then we shall benefit her and ourselves. If
we copy her because she provides us with
Tulers, both they and we shall suffer degrada-
'tion. We need not be afraid of ideals or of
reducing them to practice even to the utter-
most. Ours will only then be a truly spiritual
nation when we shall show more truth than
gold, greater fearlessness than pomp of power
and wealth, greater charity than love of self.
If we will but clean our houses, our palaces
and temples of the attributes of wealth and
show in them the attributes of morality, we
can offer battle to any combinations of hostile
^forces without having to carry the burden of
140
Economic vs. Moral Progress
a heavy militia. Let us seek first the King-
dom of God and His righteousness and the
irrevocable promise is that everything will be
added to us. These are real economics. May
you and I treasure them and enforce them in
our daily life.
•141
EDUCATION ANCIENT AND MODERN
[Mr, Gandhi addressed in Hindi a public meeting
at Allahabad at Munshi Rain Pra'" I's gardzn under
ihe chairmanship of the Hon. Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya. The gathering was a record one
even for Munshi Ram Prasad's garden where some
of the larg-'st public meetings have bezn^held] : —
Mr. Gandhi who on rising was greeted with
loud and prolonged cheers, said that that he
should have felt difficulty — of which he was
ashamed — in addressing the meeting in Hindi
was a striking commentary on the system of
modern education which was a part of the
subject of his lecture that evening. He would,
however, prefer to speak in Hindi although he
had greater facility of expression in English.
Describing the modern system of education
he said that real education was considered to
have begun at the college at the age of 16 or 17.
The education received in school was not
useful. For instance, an Indian student, while
he knew well the geography of England, did
not possess a sufficient kn^owledge of the
142
Education Ancient and Modern
geography of his own country. The history
of India which they were taught was greatly
distorted. Government service was the aim
of their education. Tlieir highest ambition
was to become members of the Imperial Legis-
lative Council. The boys abandoned their
hereditary occupations, and forsook their
mother tongue. They were adopting the
English language, European ideas and Euro-
pean dress. They thought in English, con-
ducted all their political and social work and
all commercial transactions, etc., in English
and thought that they could not do without
the English language. They had come to
think that there was no other road.
Education through English had created a wide
gulf between the educated few and the masses.
It had created a gulf in the families also. An
English educated man had no community of
feelings and ideas with the ladies of his family.
And, as had been said, the aspirations of the
English educated men were fixed on Govern-
ment service and at the most on membership
of the Imperial Legislative Council. He for
one could never commend a system of educa-
tion which produced such a state of things and
men educated under such system could not
143
M. K. Gandhi
be expected to do any great service to the^
country. Mr. Gandhi did not mean that the
English educated leaders did not feel for th&
masses. On the other hand, he acknowledged
that the Congress and other great public move-
ments were initiated and conducted by them.
But, at the same time, he could not help
feeling that the work done during all these
years would have been much more and much
greater progress would have been made if
they had been taught in their mother tongue.
It was unfortunate, said the speaker, that a
feeling had come over them that there was no
path to progress other than that which was
being followed. They found themselves help-
less. But it was not manliness to assume an
attitude of helplessness.
Mr. Gandhi then described the ancient sys-
tem of education and said that even elemen-
tary education imparted by the village teacher
taught the student all that was necessary for
their occupations. Those who went in for
higher education became fully conversant
with the science of wealth Artha Sasfra, ethics
and religion Dharma Sastra. In ancient times
there were no restrictions on education. It
was not controlled by the State but was solely
144
Education Ancient and Modern
in the hands of Brahmans who shaped the-
system of education solely with an eye to the-
welfare of the people. It was based on res-
traint and Brahmacharya. It was due to such
a system of education that Indian civilization
had outlived so many vicissitudes through
thousands of years, while such ancient civili-
zation as those of Greece, Rome and Egypt
had become extinct. No doubt the wave of a
new civilization had been passing through
India. But he was sure that it was transitory,,
it would soon pass away and Indian civiliza-
tion would be revivified. In ancient times the-
basis of life was self-restraint but now it was-
enjoyment. The result was that people had
become powerless cowards and forsook the
truth. Having come under the influence of
another civilization it might be necessary to
adapt our own civilization in certain respect to
our new environments, but we should not
make any radical change in a civilization
which was acknowledged even by some western
scholars to be the best. It might be urged that
it was necessary to adopt the methods and
instruments of western civilization to meet the
material forces of that civilization. But the
forces born of spirituality, the bed-rock of
• 145
10
M. K. Gandhi
Indian civilization, were more than a match
for material forces. India was pre-eminently
the land of religion. It was the first and the
last duty of Indians to maintain it as such.
They should draw their strength from the Soul,
from God. If they adhered to that path Swa-
rajya which they were aspiring to and working
for would become their hand-maid.
146
THE MORAL BASIS OF CO-OPERATION
[At the 1917 session of the Co-operative Conference
held at Bombay, Mr, Gandhi introduced a paper
on " The Moral Basis of Co-operation." The paper
reads as follows] : —
Your Excellency,— The only claim I
have on your indulgence is that some months
ago I attended with Mr. Ewbank a meeting
of millhands to whom he wanted to explain
the principles of co-operation. The chawl in
which they were living was as filthy as it well
could be. Recent rains had made matters
worse. And I must frankly confess that had
it not been for Mr. Ewbank's great zeal for the
cause he has made his own, I should have
shirked the task. But there we were, seated
on a fairly worn out chorpai, surrounded by
men, women and children. Mr. Ewbank
opened fire on a man who had put himself for-
ward and who wore not a particularly innocent
countenance. After he had engaged him and
the other people about him in Gujarati conver-
sation, he wanted me to speak to the people.
Owing to the suspicious looks of the man who
147
M. K. Gandhi
was first spoken to, I naturally pressed home-
the moralities of co-operation. ] fancy that
Mr. Ewbank rather liked the manner in which
I handled the subject. Hence, I believe, his
kind invitation to me to tax your patience for a
few moments upon a consideration of co-opera-
tion from a moral standpoint.
My knowledge of the technicality of co-
operation is next to nothing. My brother
Devdhar has made the subject his own. What-
ever he does, naturally attracts me and pre-
disposes me to think that there must be some-
thing good in it and the handling of it must be-
fairly difficult. Mr. Ewbank very kindly
placed at my disposal some literature too on-
the subject. And T have had a unique oppor-
tunity of watching the effect of some co-opera-
tive effect in Champaran. I have gone through
Mr. Ewbank's ten main points which are like
the commandments, and I have gone through,
the twelve points of Mr. Collins of Behar,
which remind me of the law of the twelve
tables. There are so-called agricultural banks
in Champaran. They were to me disappoint-
ing efforts, if they were meant to be demons-
trations of the success of co-operation. On
the other hand, there is 'quiet work in the
148
The Moral Basis of Co-operation
same direction being done by Mr. Hodge, a
missionary whose efforts are leaving their
impress on those who come in contact with
him. Mr. Hodge is a co-operative enthusiast
and probably considers that the results which
he sees flowing from his efforts are due to the
working of co-operation. I who was able to
watch the two efforts had no hesitation in
inferring that the personal equation counted
for success in the one and failure in the other
instance.
I am an enthusiast myself, but twenty-five
years of experimenting and experience have
made me a cautious and discriminating en-
thusiast. Workers in a cause necessarily,
though quite unconsciously, exaggerate its
merits and often succeed in turning its very
defects into advantages. In spite of ray
caution I consider the little institution I am
conducting in Ahmedabad as the finest thing
in the world. It alone gives me sufficient
inspiration. Critics tell me that it represents
a soulless soul-force and that its severe dis-
cipline has made it merely mechanical. I
suppose both^the critics and I — are wrong.
It is, at best, a hamble attempt to place, at the
disposal of the nation, a home where men and
149
M. K. Gandhi
women may have scope for free and unfettered
development of character, in keeping with the
national genius, and if its controllers do not
take care, the discipline that is the foundation
of character may frustrate the very end in
view. I would venture, therefore, to warn
enthusiasts in co-operation against entertain-
ing false hopes.
With Sir Daniel Hamilton it has become a
religion. On the 13 January last he addressed
the students of the Scottish Churches College,
and in order to point a moral he instanced
Scotland's poverty of two hundred years ago
and showed how that great country was raised
from a condition of poverty to plenty. " There
were two powers," he said, " which raised her
— the Scottish Church and the Scottish banks.
The Church manufactured the men and the
banks manufactured the money to give the
men a start in life .... The Church
disciplined the nation in the fear of God
which is the beginning of wisdom and in the
parish schools of the Church the children
learned that the chief end of man's life was to
glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. . . .
Men were trained to believe in God and in
themselves and on the trustworthy character
150
The Moral Basis of Co-operation
so created the Scottish banking system was
built." Sir Daniel then shows that it was
possible to build up the marvellous Scottish
banking system only on the character so built.
So far there can only be perfect agreement
with Sir Daniel, for without character there
is no co-operation is a sound maxim. But
he would have us go much further. He thus
waxes eloquent on co-operation : " Whatever
may be your day dreams of India's future
never forgst this that it is to weld India into
one, and so enable her to take her rightful
place in the world, that the British Govern-
ment is here ; and the welding hammer in the
hand of the Government is the co-operative
movement." In his opinion it is the panacea
of all the evils that afflict India at the present
moment. In its extended sense it can justify
the claim on one condition which need not be
mentioned here ; in the limited sense in which
Sir Daniel has used it, I venture to think, it is
an enthusiast's exaggeration. Mark his pero-
ration : " Credit, which is only Trust and
Faith, is becoming more and more the money
power of the world, and in the parchment
bullet into which is impressed the faith
which removes mountains, India will find
' 151
M. K. Gandhi
victory and peace." Here there is evident
confusion of thought. The credit which is
becoming the money power of the world has
little moral basis and is not synonym for Trust
or Faith which are purely moral qualities.After
twenty year's experience of hundreds of men,
who had dealings with banks in South Africa,
the opinion I had so often heard expressed
has become firmly rooted in me, that the
greater the rascal the greater the credit he
enjoys with his banks. The banks do not pry
into his moral character : they are satisfied
that he meets his overdrafts and promissory
notes punctually. The credit system has en-
circled this beautiful globe of ours like a
serpent's coil, and if we do not mind, it bids
fair to crush us out of breath. I have witness-
ed the ruin of many a home through the
system, and it has mads no difference whether
the credit was labelled co-operative or other-
wise. The deadly coil has made possible the
devastating spectacle in Europe, which we are
helplessly looking on. It was perhaps never
so true as it is to-day that as in law so in war
the longest purse finally wins. I have ven-
tured to give prominence to the current belief
about credit system in order to emphasize the
152
The Moral Basis of Co-operation
point that the co-operative movement will
be a blessing to India only to the extent
that it is a moral movement strictly directed
by men fired with religious fervour. It
follows, therefore that co-operation should
be confined to men wishing to be morally
right, but failing to do so, because of grinding
poverty or of the grip of the Mahajan. Facility
for obtaining loans at fair rates will not make
immoral or unmoral men moral. But the
wisdom of the state or philanthropists demands
that they should help, on the onward path,
men struggling to be good.
Too often do we believe that material pros-
perity means moral growth. It is necessary
that a movement which is fraught with so
much good to India should not degenerate
into one for merely advancing cheap loans. I
was therefore delighted to read the recom-
mendation in the Report of the Committee on
Co-operation in India, that " they wish clearly
to express their opinion that it is to true co-
operation alone, that is, to a co-operation
which recognises the moral aspect of the
question, that Government must look for the
amelioration of the masses and not to a pseudo-
co-operative edifice, however imposing, which
• 153,
M. K. Gandhi
is built in ignorance of co-operative principles.
With this standard before us, we will not
measure the success of the movement by the
number of co-operative societies formed, but
by the moral condition of the co-operators.
The Registrars will in that event ensure the
moral growth of existing societies before mul-
tiplying them. And the Government will
make their promotion conditional, not upon
the number of societies they have registered,
but the moral success of the existing institu-
tions. This will mean tracing the course of
every pice lent to the members. Those res-
ponsible for the proper conduct of co-operative
societies will see to it that the money advanced
does not iSnd its way into the toddy-seller's
till or into the pockets of the keepers of garn-
bling dens. I would excuse the rapacity of
the Mahajan if it has succeeded in keeping
the gambling den or toddy from the ryot's
home.
A word perhaps about the Mahajan will not
be out of place. Co-operation is not a new
device. The ryots co-operate to drum out
monkeys or birds that destroy their crops.
They co-operate to use a common threshing
floor. I have found them co-operate to protect
. 154
The Moral Basis of Co-operation
their cattle to the extent of their devoting
their best land for the grazing of their cattle.
And they have been found co-operating
against a particularly rapacious Mahajan.
Doubt has been expressed as to the success
of co-operation because of the tightness of
the Mahajan's hold on the ryots. I do not
share the fears. The mightiest Mahajan
must, if he ^represents an evil force, bend
before co-operation, conceived as an
essentially moral movement. But my limited
experience cf the Mahajan of Champaran has
made me revise the accepted opinion about his
' blighting linfluence.' I have found him to be
not always relentless, not always exacting of
the last pie. He sometimes serves his clients
in many ways or even comes to their rescue
in the hour of their distress. My observation
is so limited that I dare not draw any con-
clusions from it, but I respectfully enquire
whether it is not possible to make a serious
effort to draw out the good in the Mahajan
and help him or induce him to throw out the
evil in him. May he not be induced to join
the army of co-operation, or has experience
proved that he is past praying for ?
I note that the movement takes note of all
' 155 .
M. K. Gandhi
-indegenous industries. I beg publicly to ex-
press my gratitude to Government for helping
me in my humble effort to improve the lot of
the weaver. The experiment I am conducting
■shows that there is a vast field for work in
this direction. No well wisher of India, no
patriot dare look upon the impending destruc-
tion of the hand-loom weaver with equanimity.
As Dr. Mann has stated, this industry used to
supply the peasant with an additional source
of livelihood and an insurance against famine.
Every Registrar who will nurse back to life
this important and graceful industry will earn
the gratitude of India. My humble effort
consists firstly in making researches as to the
possibilities of simple reforms in the orthodox
hand-looms, secondly in weaning the educated
youth from the craving for Government or
other service and the feeling that education
renders him unfit for independent occupation
and in inducing him to take to weaving as a
calling as honourable as that of a barrister or
a doctor, and thirdly by helping those weavers
who have abandoned their occupation to revert
to it. I will not weary the audience with any
•statement on the first two parts of the experi-
ment. The third may be allowed a few
156
The Moral Basis of Co-operation
sentences as it has a direct bearing upon
the subject before us. I was able to enter
upon it only six months ago. Five families
that had left off the calling have reverted to it.
and they are doing a prosperous business.
The Ashram supplies them at the door with'
the yarn they need ; its volunteers take
delivery of the cloth woven, paying them cash
at the market rate. The Ashram merely loses
interest on the loan advanced for the yarn. It
has as yet suffered no loss and is able to restrict
its loss to a minimum by limiting the loan to a
particular figure. All future transactions are
strictly cash. We are able to command a
ready sale for the cloth received. The loss of
interest, therefore, on the transaction is
negligible. 1 would like the audience to note,
its purely moral character from start to finish. -
The Ashram depends for its existence on such
help as friends render it. We, therefore, can
have no warrant for charging interest. The
weavers could not be saddled with it. Whole
families that were breaking to pieces are put
together again. The use of the loan is
predetermined. And we the middlemen being
volunteers obtain the privilege of entering into
the lives of these families, I hope for their and
• 157
M. K. Gandhi
our betterment. We cannot lift them without
being lifted ourselves. This last relationship
has not yet been developed, but we hope at an
early date to take in hand the education too of
these families and not rest satisfied till we
have touched them at every point. This is not
too ambitious a dream. God willing, it will be
a reality some day, I have ventured to dilate
upon the small experiment to illustrate what I
mean by co-operation to present it to others
for imitation. Let us be sure of our ideal.
We shall ever fail to realize it, but we should
never cease to strive for it. Then there need
be no fear of "co-operation of scoundrels"
that Ruskin so rightly dreaded.
158
INDIAN COLONIAL EMIGRATION
I have carefully read the resolution issued
at Simla by the Government of India on the
1st instant (September 1.917) embodying the
report of the Inter-Departmental Conference
recently held in London. It will be remembered
that this was the Conference referred to in the
Viceregal speech of last year at the opening of
the sessions of the Viceregal Legislative Coun-
cil. It will be remembered, too, that this was
the Conference which Sir James Meston and
Sir S. P. Sinha were to have attended, but were
unable to attend owing to their having re-
turned to India before the date of the meeting
of the Conference. It is stated in the report
under discussion that these gentlemen were
able to discuss the question of emigration to
certain English Colonies informally with the
two Secretaries of State, i.e., the Secretary of
State for India and the Secretary of State for
the Colonies. Lord Islington, Sir A. Steel
Maitland, and Messrs. Seton, Grindle, Green
and Macnaughton constituted the Conference.
To take the wording of the resolution, this
159
M. K. Gaudhi
Conference sat " to consider the proposals for
a new assisted system of emigration to British
Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica and Fiji." The
public should, therefore, note that this assisted
emigration is to be confined only to the four
Crown Colonies mentioned and not to the Self-
Governing Colonies of South Africa, Canada
or Australia, or the Crown Colony of Mauritius..
What follows will show the importance of
this distinction. It is something to be thank-
ful for that " the Government of India have
not yet considered the report and reserved,
judgment on all the points raised in it." This
is as it should be on a matter so serious as this-
and one which only last year fairly convulsed
the whole of India and which as in one shape
or another agitated the country since 1895.
The declaration too that " His Majesty's
Government in agreement with the Govern-
ment of India have decided that indentured
emigration shall not be re-opened" is welcome
as is also the one that " no free emigrants
can be introduced into any Colony until all
Indian emigrants already there have been re-
leased from existing indentures."
In spite, however, of so much in the report
that fills one with gladness, the substantive
160
Indian Colonial Emigration
part of it which sets forth the scheme which
is to replace indentured emigration is, so far
as one can judge, to say the least of it, dis-
appointing. Stripped of all the phraseology
under which the scheme has been veiled, it is
nothing less than a system of indentured emi-
gration no doubt on a more humane basis and
safeguarded with some conditions beneficial
to the emigrants taking advantage of it.
The main point that should be borne in mind
is that the Conference sat designedly to consi-
der a scheme of emigration not in the interests
of the Indian labourer, but in those of the colo-
nial employer. The new system, therefore, i&
devised to help the Colonies concerned. India
needs no outlet, at any rate for the present
moment, for emigration outside the country.
It is debateable whether in any event the four
Colonies will be the most suitable for Indian
Colonisation. The best thing, therefore, that
can happen from an Indian standpoint is that
there should be no assisted emigration from
India of any type whatsoever. In the absence
of any such assistance, emigration will have
to be entirely free and at the risk and expense
of the emigrant himself. Past experience
shows that in that event there will be very
' 161
11
M. K. Gandhi
little voluntary emigration to distant Colonies.
In the report, assisted emigration means, to
use a mild expression, stimulated emigration ;
and surely with the industries of India crying
out for labour and with her legitimate resour-
ces yet undeveloped, it is madness to think of
providing a stimulus for the stay-at-home
Indian to go out of India. Neither the Govern-
ment nor any voluntary agency has been found
capable of protecting from ill usage the Indian
who emigrates either to Burma or Ceylon,
much less can any such protection avail in far
off Fiji or the three other Colonies. I hope
that leaders of public opinion in India will,
therefore; take their stand on the'one impreg-
nable rock of not wanting any emigration
whatsoever to the Colonies. It might be
argued that we, as a component part of the
Empire, are bound to consider the wants of
our partners, but this would not be a fair plea
to advance so long as India stands in need
of all the labour she can produce, if, therefore
India does not assist the Colonies, it is not
because of want of will, but it is due to want
•of ability. An additional reason a politician
would be justified in using is that, so long as
India does not in reality ocaupy the position.
162
Indian Colonial Emigration
of an equal partner with the Colonies and so
long as her sons continue to be regarded by
Englishmen in the Colonies and English
employers even nearer home to be fit only
as hewers of wood and drawers of water,
no scheme of emigration to the Colonies can
be morally advantageous to Indian emigrants.
If the badge of inferiority is always to be
worn by them, they can never rise to their
full status, and any material advantage they
will gain by emigrating can, therefore, be
of no consideration.
But let us for the moment consider the new
system. " The system," it is stated, to be
followed in future will be one of aided
emigration, and its objact will be to encourage
the settlement of Indians in certain Colonies
after a probationary period of employment in
those Colonies, to train and fit them for life
and work there and at the same time to
acquire a supply of the labour essential to
the well-being of the colonists themselves."
So the re-settlement is to be conditional on
previous employment under contract, and it
will be seen in the course of our examination
that this contract is to be just as binding as
the contracts used to be under indenture. The
163
M. K. Gandhi
report has the following humorous passage in
it : " He will be in no way restricted to service
under any particular employer except that for
his own protection, a selected employer will
be chosen for him for the first six months."
This has a flavour of the old indentured
system. One of the evils complained of about
that system was that the labourer was
assigned to an employer. He was not free to
choose one himself. Under the new system,
the employer is to be selected for the
protection of the labourer. It is hardly
necessary for me to point out that the would be
labourer will never be able to feel the protection'
devised for him. The labourer is further " to
be encouraged to work for his first three years
in agricultural industries, by the offer, should
he do so, of numerous and important benefits
subsequently as a colonist." This is another
indi\cement to indenture, and I know enough
of such schemes to be able to assure both the-
Government and public that these so-called
inducements in the hands of clever mani-
pulations become nothing short of methods of
compulsion in respect of innocent and ignorant
Indian labourers. It is due to the fraraers
of the scheme that I should djaw attention to
164
Indian Colonial Emigration
the fact that they have avoided all criminal
penalties for breach of contract. In India,
itself, if the scheme is adopted, we are promised
a revival of the much dreaded depots and
Emigration Agents, all no doubt on a more
respectable basis, but still of the same type
and capable of untold mischief.
The rest of the report is not likely to
interest the public but those who wish to
study it will, I doubt not, come to the conclu-
sion to which I have been driven, that the
framers have done their best to strip the old
system of many of the abuses which had crept
into it, but they have not succeeded in placing
before the Indian public an acceptable scheme.
I hold that it was an impossible task. The
system of indenture was one of temporary
slavery ; it was incapable of being amended ; it
should only be ended and it is to be hoped
that India will never consent to its revival in
any shape or form. — (Indian Review).
165
INDIAN RAILWAYS
I have now been in India far over two years
and a half after my return from South Africa.
Over one quarter of that time I have passed
on the Indian trains travelling 3rd class by
choice. I have travelled up north as far as
Lahore, down South up to Tranquebar, and from
Karachi to Calcutta, Having resorted to 3rd
class travelling among other reasons for the
purpose of studying the conditions under which
this class of passengers travel, I have naturally
made as critical observations as I could. I
have fairly covered the majority of railway
systems during this period. Now and then 1
have entered into correspondence with the
management of the different Railways about
the defects that have come under my notice.
But I think that the time has come when I
should invite the Press and the Public to join
in a crusade against a grievance which has
too long remained unredressed though much of
it is capable of redress without great diffi-
culty.
166
Indian Railways
On the 12th instant (September 1917) I
booked at Bombay for Madras by the Mail
train and paid Rs. 13-9-0. It was labelled to
carry 22 passengers. These could only have
seating accommodation. There were no
bunks in this carriage whereon passengers
could lie with any degree of safety or
comfort. There were two nights to be passed
in this train before reaching Madras. If not
more than 22 passengers found their way into
my carriage before we reached Poona, it was
because the bolder ones kept the others at bay.
With the exception of two or three insistent
passengers all had to find their sleep being
seated all the time. After reaching Raichur
the pressure became unbearable. The rush of
passengers could not be stayed. The fighters
among us found the task almost beyond them.
The guards or other railway servants came in
only to push in more passengers. A defiant
Menon merchant protested against this pack-
ing of passengers like sardines. In vain did he
say that this was his fifth night on the train.
The guard insulted him and referred him to
the management at the Terminus. There were
during this time as many as 35 passengers in
the carriage during the greater part of it. Some
• 167
M. K. Gandhi
lay on the floor in the midst of dirt and some
bad to keep standing. A free fight was at one
time avoided only by the intervention of some
of the older passengers who did not want to
add to the discomfort by an exhibition of
temper.
On the way, passengers got down for tea
tanni-water with filthy sugar and a whitish
looking liquid miscalled milk which gave this
water a muddy appearance. I can vouch for
the appearance but I cite the testimony of the
passengers as to the taste.
Not during the whole of the journey was
the compartment once swept or cleaned. The
result was that every time you walked on the
floor or rather cut your way through the pass-
engers seated on the floor, you waded through
dirt.
The closet was also not cleaned during the
journey and there was no water in the water
tank.
Refreshments sold to the passengers were
dirty looking, handled by dirtier hands, coming
out of filthy receptacles and weighed in equally
unattractive scales. These were previously
sampled by millions of flies. I asked some of
168
Indian Railways
the passengers who went in for these dainties
to give their opinion. Many of them used
choice expressions as to the quality but were
satisfied to state they were helpless in the
matter ; they had to take things as they came.
On reaching the station I found that the
ghari-wala would not take me unless I paid
the fare he wanted. I mildly protested and
told him I would pay him the authorised fare.
I had to turn a passive resister before I could
be taken. I simply told him he would have to
pull me out or call the policeman.
The return journey was performed in better
manner. The carriage was packed already and
but for a friend's intervention I would not
have been able to secure even a seat. My
admission was certainly beyond the authorised
number. This compartment was constructed
to carry 9 passengers but it had constantly 12
in it. At one place an impertinent railway
servant swore at a protestant, threatened to
strike him and locked the door over the pas-
senger whom he had with difficulty squeezed
in. To this compartment there was a closet
•falsely so-called. It was designed as a
European closet but could hardly be used
as such. There was a pipe in it but no water
• 169
M. K. Gandhi
and I say without fear of challenge that it
was pestilentially dirty.
The compartment itself was evil looking.
Dirt was lying thick upon the wood work and
I do not know that it had ever seen soap or
water.
This compartment had an exceptional
assortment of passengers. There were three
stalwart Punjabi Mohammedans, two rej&ned
Tamilians and two Mohammedan merchants
who joined us later. The merchant related the
bribes they had to give to procure comfort.
One of the Punjabis had already travelled
three nights and was weary and fatigued. But
he could not stretch himself. He said he had
sat the whole day at the Central Station
watching passengers giving bribes to procure
their tickets. Another said he had himself to
pay Rs. 5 before he could get his ticket and
his seat. These three men were bound for
Ludhiana and had still more nights of travel
in store for them.
What I have described is not exceptional
but normal. I have got down at Raichur,
Dhond, Sonepur, Chakradharpur, Purulis,.
Asansol and other junction stations and been
at the Mosafirkhanas attached to these stations.
170
Indian Railways
They are discreditable-looking places where
there is no order, no cleanliness but utter
confusion and horrible din and noise. Passen-
gers have no benches or not enough to sit on.
They squat on dirty floors and eat dirty food.
They are permitted to throw the leavings
of their food and spit where they like, sit how
they like and smoke every where. The closets
attached to these places defy description. I
have not the power to adequately describe
them without committing a breach of the laws
of decent speech. Disinfecting powder, ashes
or disinfecting fluid are unknown. The army
of flies buzzing about them warns you against
their use. But a 3rd class traveller is dumb
and helpless. He does not want to complain
even though to go to these places, may be
to court death. I know passengers who fast
while they are travelling just in order to
lessen the misery of their life in the trains.
At Sonepur flies having failed, wasps have
come forth to warn the public and the authori-
ties but yet to no purpose. At the Imperial
Capital a certain 3rd class booking office is
a Black Hole fit only to be destroyed.
Is it any wonder that plague has become
epedemic in India ? Any other result is impos-
• 171
M. K. Gandhi
sible where passengers always leave some dirt
where they go and take more on leaving ?
On Indian trains alone passengers smoke
with impunity in all carriages irrespective of
the presence of the fair sex and irrespective of
the protests of nonsmokers and notwithstand-
ing a byelaw which prevents a passenger from
smoking without the permission of his fellow
passengers in a compartment which is not
allotted to smokers.
The existence of the awful war cannot be
allowed to stand in the way of removal of this
;gigantic evil. War can be no warrant for
tolerating dirt and overcrowding. One could
understand an entire stoppage of passenger
traffic in a crisis like this but never a conti-
muation or accentuation of insanitation and
conditions that must undermine health and
morality.
Compare the lot of the 1st cl^ss passengers
with that of the 3rd class. In the Madras case
the 1st class fare is over five times as much as
the 3rd class fare. Does the 3rd class passen-
ger get one fifth, even one tenth, of the
comfort of his 1st class fellow? It is but
simple justice to claim that relative propor-
172
Indian Railways
tions be observed between the cost and the
comfort.
It is a known fact that the 3rd class traffic
pays for the ever-increasing luxuries of 1st and
2nd class travelling. Surely a 3rd class passen-
ger is entitled at least to the bare necessities of
life.
In neglecting the 3rd class passengers an
opportunity of giving a splendid education to
millions in orderliness, sanitation, decent
composite life, and cultivation of simple and
clean tastes is being lost. Instead of receiving-
an object lesson in these matters 3rd class
passengers have their sense of decency and
cleanliness blunted during their travelling-
experience.
Among the many suggestions that can be
made for dealing with the evil here described I
would respectfully include this : let the people
in high places, the Viceroy, the Commander-in-
Chief, the Rajahs, the Maharajas, the Imperial
Councillors and others who generally travel in
superior classes, without previous warning go
through the experience now and then of 3rd
class travelling. We would then soon see a
remarkable change in the conditions of the
3rd class travelling and the uncomplaining
173
M. K. Gandhi
millions will get some return for the fares they
pay under the expectation of being carried
from place to place with the ordinary creature
comforts.
174
GUJARAT EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE
[The second Gujarat Educational Conference was
held at Broach, in October 20, 1917. when Mr. M. K.
Gandhi read his presidential address in Gujarati a
translation of which reads as under] : —
After thanking the conference for the honour
bestowed on him he said the selection fell
on him simply because he would yield to none
in his love and devotion for the Gujarati
language. He then congratulated the last
conference on the good work done by them and
for publishing a very valuable report in time.
He then highly regretted the premature loss
of Mr. Ranjitram Vavabhai, one of the most
active secretaries of the conference. Recapitu-
lating the three objects of the Gujarat Kala-
vani Mandal under whose auspices the
conference was held, he proceeded to treat
them in detail.
MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
He regarded the question of the medium of
instruction of the highest importance and as
one on which the whole edifice of education
rested. He referred to the two views held on
175
M. K. Gandhi
this question. There is one party that wants
the mother tongue Gujaratl to be the medium.
The other party supports English. ' Both are
prompted by pure motives. Both have the good
of the country at heart but purity of motives
alone is not sufficient for the achievement of
the desired end. Experience of the world shows
that often a pure motive lands us on impure
ground. Let us therefore examine the merits
or otherwise of the two views and see if we can
arrive at unanimity on this point. This difficult
question concerns the whole of India. But that
does not mean that each province cannot
solve it for itself, but must wait for general
unanimity.'
Of course, it would help us to some degree
in the solution of this problem if we review
the agitation and efforts of other provinces.
Bengal during the excitement of the ' partition '
days tried to impart instruction in Bengali.
Schools were established, funds poured in but
the experiment failed. In my humble opinion
it failed, because the organisers and teachers
had not sufficient faith in their own experi-
ment. The educated Bengali could not get out
of the fascination of the English language. It
■was suggested that Bengali literature owes its
176
Gujarat Educational Conference
development to the command the Bengalis
have over the English language. In answer
Mr. Gandhi instanced the wonderful Bengali
of Sir Rabindranath Tagore which is in no
way indebted to his knowledge of English.
He owes inspiration to the very atmosphere of
India. He has imbibed it from the Upanishads.
The same can be said of Mahatma Munshi
Ram and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya.
The service which Swami Dayanand Sarasvati
rendered to Hindi literature owed nothing
to English. Tukaram and Ramdas who have
enriched the Marathi language were not ia
the least under the obligation of the English
language. English cannot claim any credit
for the contribution to Gujarati literature of
poets from Parmanand and Samel Bhat down
to Dalpatram. When we consider how lan-
guages grow, we come to the conclusion that a
language is but the reflection of the character
of the people that speak it. Language depends
upon the peculiar genius and occupation of
a people. The inordinate use of polished and
courtly forms of speech indicate that we have
been under subjection for generations together.
The English language abounds in nautical
terms. We cannot import them in the Gujarati
177
12
M. K. Gandhi
language, but if we take to navigation nautical
phraseology will frame of itself.
Mr. Gandhi then proceeded to give a quota-
tion from Rev. Taylor's grammar of the
Gujarati language in support of the above.
He then referred to the laudable efforts of
the Arya Samaj in making Hindi the medium
of instruction in their Gurukul ; and of the
Telugu people in using Telugu as the vehicle of
education. In Maharastra Professor Karve and
Prof. Naick both work in the same direction.
In Professor Bijapurkar's school they had
already prepared suitable text-books in
Marathi. They are all hopeful about the
success of their work. In Gujarat there was
a movement already for imparting instruction
through Gujarati. Prof. Gajjar and the late
Dewan Bahadur Manibhai Jarbhai may be
regarded as the pioneers and it now remains
with us to consider whether we shall water
the plant sown by them or allow it to wither
away.
Experienced teachers say that what takes
sixteen years to learn through English can
perfectly be acquired in ten years at the
most through the vernaculars. If thousands
of our students save six years each of their
178
Gujarat Educational Conference
precious life, what a great national saving
it would be.
The excessive burden of having to learn
through a foreign medium has sapped the
strength, enthusiasm and vitality of our young
men. Sickly and pale they can at best be
mere imitators. All power of initiative, origi-
nality and enterprise ; courage, discrimination
and fearlessness dwindle away as years pass
by. What they commence they cannot carry
out. The few that show some spirit die young.
The negroes of South Africa are a stalwart
and sober race. Social evils like child-marriage
are unknown amongst them but they too have
suffered like ourselves because they accepted
Dutch as the medium of their education.
They have grown impotent imitators of
the west. With the loss of their mother
tongue they lost all vigour and originality.
We who have received English education
cannot measure the loss we have sustained.
If we consider what little hold we have upon
our masses we can have some idea of that
loss. We are proud of a Bose or a Ray
amongst us but I daresay that had we received
instruction through the vernacular for the
last fifty years we would have had amongst us
179
M. K. Gandhi
so many Boses and Rays that their existence-
would not have been a matter of surprise-
to us.
Leaving aside the question whether Japan's
activities are in the right direction or not we-
can say that the extraordinary enterprise and
progressive life they have shown is due ta
their education being given in Japanese. Their-
education has infused a new life among the-
people which has been a wonder to the gaping
world. Instruction through a foreign medium
brings about untold evils.
There must be a correspondence between
the impressions and expressions we receive-
with our mother's milk and the education we-
receive at school. A foreign medium destroys
the correspondence, and whosoever helps this
destruction, however pure his motives, is an
enemy of his country. The evil does not stop
here. The foreign medium has created an un-
natural gulf between the educated classes and
the masses at large. We do not understand the
masses and the masses do not understand us..
They regard us as foreigners and they fear and
distrust us. If this state of things continues
for long. Lord Curzon's charge that we do not
represent the masses will some day prove to
180
Gujarat Educational Conference
'he true. Fortunately the educated classes have
•gradually come to realise the difficulty of
reaching the masses. They see now that they
have over reached the expectations of Lord
Macaulay. We took to English because it led
to the acquisition of wealth, and some
cultivated the ideas of nationalism through
English.
If we were in power we could see the danger
of the spread of English at the cost of the ver-
nacular. Even the Government officers have
not dispensed with the vernaculars. In offices
and law courts they still use the vernaculars.
If pleaders conducted their cases in the verna-
culars, the clients would gain a great deal, and
the language would be enriched.
It is argued that only the English knowing
Indians have evinced patriotism. Recent
'events prove otherwise, but even accepting
the assertion we can say that others had no
opportunity whatsoever. The patriotism of
the English educated has not spread amongst
the masses. English may be kept as an
optional subject for those who want to study
it for political purposes or for the acquisition
of wealth by the help of western sciences. Not
only should they acquire a good command
' 181
M. K. Gandhi
over the English language but it is also our
duty to make facilities for imparting such
education.
Before closing this topic he referred to the
two pamphlets published by Dr. P. J, Mehta
and recommended the audience to peruse them.
He then suggested a number of ways and
means for preparing a ground for making
Gujarati as the medium of instruction such as
the use of Gujarati language only in mutual
intercourse among the Gujaratis, prepara-
tion of Gujarati text-books, opening schools ^
etc.
NATIONAL LANGUAGE
A.fter dealing with the medium of instruc-
tion he dwelt at length upon the subject of
National language. He gave an able reply
to those who suggest that English ought to
become the lingua franca oilndiz.. He said a
National language should satisfy the follow-
ing five conditions : —
(1) It must be easy for the official.
(2) It must be the vehicle of religious, social
and political intercourse of the people.
(3) It must be spoken by a large number.
(4) It must be easy of acquisition by the
masses.
182
Gujarat Educational Conference
(5) It must not be considered a temporary
makeshift arrangement.
He then showed how English does not satisfy
any of these conditions. He proved that
Hindi is the only language that satisfies all
these conditions. Hindi was our national
language even under the Mahomedan rule and
the Mahomedan rulers did not think it proper
to substitute it with Persian or Arabic.
He then pointed out the defects in the
method of teaching history, geography, science
and mathematics. He then also referred to
the non-provision of such subjects as musiC'
agriculture, military training, weaving, religion
and hygiene.
183
ADVICE TO THE MERCHANTS
[In reply to the address given to him by the
merchants of Broach, Mr. Gandhi said] : —
Merchants always have the spirit of adven-
ture, intellect and wealth, as without these
qualities their business cannot go on. But now
they must have the fervour of patriotism in
them. Patriotism is necessary even for religion.
If the spirit of patriotism is awakened through
the religious fervour, then that patriotism will
shine out brilliantly. So it is necessary that
patriotism must be roused in the mercantile
community.
The merchants take more part in public
affairs now-a-days than before. When mer-
chants take to politics through patriotism,
Swaraj is as good as obtained. Some of you
might be wondering how we can get Swaraj. I
lay my hand on my heart and say that, when
the merchant class understands the spirit of
patriotism, then only can we get Swaraj
184
Advice to the Merchants
quickly. Swaraj then will be quite a natural
thing.
Amongst the various keys which will un-
lock Swaraj to us, the Swadeshi Vow is the
golden one. It is in the hands of the merchants
to compel the observance of the Swadeshi
Vow in the country, and this is an adventure
which can be popularised by the merchants. I
ihumbly request you to undertake this adven-
ture, and then you will see what wonders you
can do.
This being so, I have to say with regret that
it is the merchant class which has brought
ruin to the Swadeshi practice, and the Swadeshi
movement in this country. Complaints have
lately risen in Bengal about the increase of
rates, and one of them is against Gujarat. It is
complained there that the prices of Dhotis
have been abnormally increased and Dhotis go
from Gujarat. No one wants you not to earn
money, but it must be earned righteously and
not be ill-gotten. Merchants must earn money
by fair means. Unfair means must never be
used.
Continuing, Mr. Gandhi said: India's
strength lies with the merchant class. So much
does not lie even with the army. Trade is the
• 185
M. K. Gandhi
cause of war, and the merchant class has the
key of war in their hands. Merchants raise the
money and the army is raised on the strength
of it. The power of England and Germany
rests on their trading class. A country's pros-
perity depends upon its mercantile community.
I consider it as a sign of good luck that I
should receive an address from the merchant
class. Whenever I remember Broach, I will
enquire if the merchants who have given me
an address this day have righteous faith and
patriotism. If I receive a disappointing reply, I
will think that merely a wave of giving
addresses had come over India and that I had
a share in it.
186-
VERNACULARS AS A MEDIA OF
INSTRUCTION
It is to be hoped that Dr. Mehta's labour of
love will receive the serious attention of
English-Educated India. The following pages
were written by him for the Vedanta Kesari
of Madras and are now printed in their present
form for circulation throughout India. The
question of vernaculars as media of instruction
is of national importance ; neglect of the
vernaculars means national suicide. One
hears many protagonists of the English
language being continued as the medium of
instruction pointing to the fact that English
educated Indians are the sole custodians of
public and patriotic work. It would be mon-
strous if it were not so. For, the only educa-
tion given in this country is through the
English language. The fact, however, is that
the results are not at all proportionate to the
time we give to our education. We have not
reacted on the masses. But I must not antici-
pate Dr. Mehta. He is in earnest. He writes
• 187
M. K. Gandhi
feelingly. He has examined the pros and cons
and collected a mass of evidence in support of
his arguments. The latest pronouncement on
the subject is that of the Viceroy. Whilst His
Excellency is unable to offer a solution, he is
keenly alive to the necessity of imparting
instruction in our schools through the verna-
culars. The Jews of middle and Eastern
Europe, who are scattered in all parts of the
world, finding it necessary to have a common
tongue for mutual intercourse, have raised
Tiddish to the status of a language, and have
succeeded in translating into Yiddish the best
hooks to be found in the world's literature.
'Even they could not satisfy the soul's yearn-
ing through the many foreign tongues of which
they are masters ; nor did the learned few
among them wish to tax the masses of the
Jewish population with having to learn a
foreign language before they could realise their
dignity. So they have enriched what was at
onetime looked upon as a mere jargon — but
what the Jewish children learnt from their
mothers— by taking special pains to translate
-into it the best thought of the world. This is
a truly marvellous work. It has been done
•during the present generation, and Webster's
188'
Vernaculars as a Media of Instruction
Dictionary defines it as a polyglot jargon used
for inter-communication by Jews from diffe-
rent nations.
But a Jew of middle and Eastern Europe
would feel insulted if his mother- tongue wera
now so described. If these Jewish scholars
have succeeded, within a generation, in giving
their masses a language of which they may
feel proud, surely it should be an easy task
for as to supply the needs of our own verna-
culars, which are cultured languages. South
Africa teaches us the same lesson. There
was a duel there between the Taal, a corrupt
form of Dutch, and English. The Boer
mothers and the Boer fathers were determined
that they would not let their children, with
whom they in their infancy talked in the
Taal, be weighed down with having to receive
instruction through English. The case for
English here was a strong one. It had able
pleaders for it. But English bad to yield
before Boer patriotism. It may be observed
that they rejected even the high Dutch. The
school masters, therefore, who are accustomed
to speak the polished Dutch of Europe, are
compelled to teach the easier Taal. And
literature of an excellent character is at the
189
M. K. Gandhi
present moment growing up in South A.frica
in the Taal, which was only a few years ago,
the common medium of speech between simple
but brave rustics. If we have last faith in
our vernaculars, it is a sign of want of faith
in ourselves ; it is the surest sign of decay.
And no scheme of self-Government however
benevolently or generously it may be bestowed
upon us, will ever make us a self-governing
nation, if we have no respect for the languages
our mothers speak. — {Introduction contributed
to Dr. P. J. Mehta's Pamphlet, No, l).
190
APPENDIX I
THE STRUGGLE OF PASSIVE
RESISTANCE MOVEMENT
IN SOUTH AFRICA
{By the Editor, Indian Opinion.)
To survey, within a limited space, the origins and
incidents of a movement that has occupied eight
years of the history of South African Indians is a
task impossible of satisfactory fulfilment. The
present sketch will, therefore, be but a hasty oat«
line, with here and there an indicator emphasising
a noteworthy occurrence or a fundamental outline.
The origins of the Passive Resistance Struggle
are to be sought, not in the agitation of 1906, but
in that which commenced, in one of its phases, in
the Transvaal. In 1885, and, in another, in Natali
in 1894. The old Republican Law 3 of 1885, whilst
imposing various burdens upon Asiatics residing
in the country, required that such of them as entered
for purposes of trade should be registered at a fixed
fee, and that, " for sanitary purposes," they should
reside in locations specially set apart for them. To
a large extent, both requirements proved a dead
191
M. K. Gandhi
letter, but a great deal of friction with the British
Government was engendered, resulting in Imperial
intervention at the time of the War, when resident
Indians, as British subjects, were promised complete
redress of their grievances.
In Natal, a British Colony, the position had been
complicated by the grave prejudice aroused by the
presence of large numbers of Indian labourers
brought at the instance of the European Colonists
under indenture, and an agitation had arisen for the
exclusion of free Asiatic immigration and the dis-
franchisement of all Asiatics. It became a question
whether this was to be accomplished by specifically
racial legislation or by general enactment differenti-
ally administered. The conflict of views represented
by these two methods raged for sometime, but at
last, thanks to the statesmanship of Mr. Chamberlain,
in 1897, the second method was adopted, and the
famous " Natal Act " passed, imposing an educational
and not a racial test. From then onwards, in Natal,,
racial legislation was a thing of the past, and hence
the first signs of renewed trouble arose in the
Transvaal, where the principle of statutory equality
had not been accepted, owing to a different political
conception of the status of coloured people.
In the re-settlement that took place after the War»
it was hoped that the burdens would be removed.
192
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
from the shoulders of the British Indian community
but Indians were dismayed to find the Imperial
authorities endeavouring vigorously to enforce the
obnoxious legislation against which they had strongly
protested in pre-war days, a policy that was later
weakly defended by Lord Selborne. Immigration of
Indians was severely restricted by the Peace
Preservation Ordinance. Re-registration of practic-
ally all adult male Indians, under Law 3 of 1885»
was urged by Lord Milner, and was subsequently
agreed to by the Indian leaders as a purely voluntary
act, on Lord Milner's definite promise that this
registration would be regarded as complete and final,
and that the certificates issued would constitute a
permanent right of residence to the holders and a
right to come^and go at will.
Meanwhile, Law 3 of 1835 was being enforced so
as to compel all Indians to reside and trade in
locations, and the pre-war controversy was revived,
resulting in an appeal to the Supreme Court, which
reversed the old Republican High Court's decision,
and held that Indians were free to trade anywhere
they pleased, and that non-residence in a location
was not punishable at law. This decision was a
severe rebuff to the anti-Indian element in the
European population that had its representatives
even in the Government, which endeavoured to
legislate to overcome l;he effect of the Supreme Court
193
13
M. K, Gandhi
decision — without result, however, owing to the inter-
vention of the then Secretary of State for the Colonies,
the late Mr. Lyttelton. But the general public, by
ingeniously manipulated statistics, were led to believe
in a huge influx of unauthorised Asiatics iuto the
Transvaal, to which some colour was let by the
dispersal of the Indian residents of the Johannesburg
Indian location throughout the Colony, after it was
burnt down at the time of the plague outbreak in
1904, and meetings all over the Transvaal were held
with the object of closing the door against all Asiatic
immigration, and compelling Indians to trade and
reside exclusively in locations. In an atmosphere of
prejudice and terror thus created, it was possible
effectively to protest one's innocence, and the request
of the Indian community for an open and impartial
inquiry, whether by Royal Commission or otherwise,
fell on deaf ears ; so that when a draft ordinance was
published, in 1906, to " amend " Law 3 of 1885.
requiring compulsory re-registration of the entire
Indian community, men, women, and children, it
was voiciferously welcomed by the whole European
population, whilst it fell amongst the Indian victims
to be like a bomb-shell. The basic assumption, on the
part of the authorities, for its necessity lay in the
unquenchable belief in wholesale Indian immigration
of an unlawful character, to which, in their opinion,
resident Indians could not but be a party. So far as
194
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
the general public was concerned, the measure was
hailed as the first instalment of a scheme designed to
drive Indians out of the Colony altogether, and
Europeans in the neighbouring Colonies and territories
eagerly looked on, as they had looked on, in 1903, at
Lord Milner's abortive effort to compel Indian trade
and residence in locations, so that they might take
advantage of the results of the new policy to relieve
themselves to their own Asiatic " incubus."
Appalled by the magnitude of the disaster that
threatened the community, the Indian leaders hast-
ened to take steps to avoid it, if possible. They sought
an interview with the responsible member of the
Government, but succeeded only in getting women
excluded from the operation of the measure, and, as
a last resort, an Indian mass meeting was held at
the moment that the Legislative Council : was
debating the clauses of the draft ordinance. Whilst
the Council's debate was a perfunctory and pre-
arranged performance, the whole business being con-
cluded in less than a couple of hours, the crowded
Empire Theatre rang with impassioned denuncia-
tions of the Government's policy, which belied the
solemn undertaking of Lord Milner in every
important respect, assumed the guilt of the Indian
community unheard and without proof, and adum-
brated their virtual expulsion from the Colony, and,
eventually, from SoUth Africa. So fierce was the
195
M. K. Gandhi
indignation aroused that, when the famous Fourth'
Resolution was put, committing all present, and
those they represented, to go to gaol, if the measure
should become law, until such time as it should be
repealed or disallowed, the whole vast audience of
three thousand persons rose as one man, and shouted
a solemn " Amen," when the oath of Passive Resist-
ance was administered. Simultaneously, however,,
and as a last effort to avoid a terrible conflict, a
deputation to England was arranged for. The
delegates proceeded there to interview the Imperial
authorities and arouse public opinion, and their efforts
resulted in the suspension of the Royal Assent to the
measure owing to the imminence of the inauguration'
of self-government in the Transvaal, and in the
formation of the famous South Africa British Indian
Committee, with Sir Mancherji Bhownaggree as its
Executive Chairman, Mr. L. W. Ritch as its Secre-
tary, and, subsequently. Lord Ampthill as its
President.
The disallowance of the measure was, however,
merely a temporary respite, for, taking umbrage at
what was thought to be an impertinent intrusion
on the part of the Imperial Government in the affairs
of a practically self-governing British Colony, the
European section of the population angrily demanded
the immediate re-enactment of the ordinance, and
almost the flrst action of the new Parliament was to-
196
ZHT
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
rush it through all its stages in a single session of a
unanimous House, entirely ignoring Indian opinion
and Indian protests, for, as Indians were not directly
represented in Parliament, nobody appeared to con-
sider it necessary to take their feelings into
consideration.
Still anxious to avoid a struggle that had appeared
to be inevitable, the Indian leaders had urged the
•Government and Parliament not to proceed with the
Bill, but to accept a voluntary effort of re-registra-
tion in a manner that might be mutually agreed
■upon, in which they proffered all possible assistance.
But they were distrusted and ignored, and all the
;tragic possibilities of a prolonged conflict were
forced upon the Indian community. In July, 1907,
the new Act came into force, and registration under
it officially commenced, in compartments, the
registration officers travelling from town to town
throughout the Colony. Their efforts to induce
registration were wholly unsuccessful, and an exten-
sion of the advertised time for registration was given
by the Government, as a last opportunity to comply
with the law. But 95 per cent, of the Indian
community remained true to its oath. Meanwhile, a
further effort had been made to avoid an extension
of the trouble, and a petition, signed by some 3,000
Indians, had been addressed to the Government,
imploring them to realise the depth of suffering into
197
M. K. Gandhi
which it was threatened to plunge the Indian
community,! who once more offered voluntary
re- registration if the Act was suspended. The
petition was rejected contemptuously, aud, at the
end of the year, several of the leaders were arrested ,
ordered to leave the Colony, and, upon their refusal
to do so, imprisoned for various periods. This
process was repeated, until some hundreds of all
classes were lodged in gaol, and the Government,,
realising that their efforts to crush the community
had failed, opened up negotiations through the
agency of Mr. Albert Cartwright, then Editor of the
Transvaal Leader, with the result that, almost at the
moment that H. H. the Aga Khan was presiding
over a huge public meeting of protest in Bombay, a
compromise was signed, whereby it was agreed to
suspend passive resistance, to proceed with voluntary
re-registration for a period of three months, during
wliich the operation of the law was to be suspended,
and, as the Indian signatories clearly understood, to
repeal the hated Act if the re-registration was satis-
factorily completed. In the meantime, the situation
bad been complicated by the passing of an Immi-
gration Act that, operating jointly with the Asiatic
Law Amendment Act, absolutely prohibited all
Asiatic immigration, no matter how cultured the
immigrant might be. Thus, at a stroke, the policy
of non-racial legislation, that had been so strongly
198
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
advocated by Mr. Chamberlain, was destroyed. The
community, however, realised that, with the repeal
of the Asiatic Act, the racial taint would disappear
and all efforts were, accordingly, concentrated upon'
that. The commencement of voluntary re-registration
was signalised by a murderous attack upon
Mr. Gandhi by a misguided countryman, and,
for the moment, everything was in confusion.
But a special appeal to the community was
made, and, with confidence restored and the promise
of repeal, re-registration was duly completed
by the middle of May, and Lord Selborne himself
bore testimony to its satisfactoriness. Then the
Government were called upon to perform their part
of the compromise, but the promise of repeal was
repudiated, and immediately the Indian community
was thrown into a turmoil. The Government
offered to repeal the Act provided that certain
classes of Indians were treated as prohibited immi-
grants, and the racial bar remained in the Immigra-
tion Law. Naturally, these terms were indignantly
rejected, and the community prepared for a revival
of Passive Resistance. Mr. Sorabji Shapurji, an
educated Parsee from Natal, was imprisoned as a
protest against the racial bar. The Natal Indian
leaders entered the Transvaal, in order to co-operate
with their brethren there, and were arrested as
prohibited immigrants and ordered to leave the
199
M. K. Gandhi
Colony, But at a mass meeting held in Johannes-
burg, at which they were present, hundreds of
certificates of voluntary registration were publicly
burnt, and a challenge of wholesale imprisonment
was thrown out to the Government, who took alarm
at the situation, and a Conference of leading mem-
bers of the Government and Opposition, and of
representatives of the Indian and Chinese communi-
ties, together with Mr. Albert Cartwright, as
mediator, was held at Pretoria. The Conference
proved abortive, however, for, though they were
prepared to waive the other points upon wh-ch they
had previously insisted, the Government proved
adamant on the two main issues. They definitely
refused either to repeal the Asiatic Act or to remove
the racial bar of the Immigration Law. An amend-
ing Bill was passed through both Houses of Parlia-
ment, validating voluntary registration, and improv-
ing the Indian position in certain respects, but it
being, in the main, unsatisfactory for the reasons
given above, it was not recognised by the Passive
Resisters, who resumed the struggle with energy.
The new measure, however, strengthened the hands
of the Government by giving them powers of
deportation, which, however, were at first neutralised
by their deporting Passive Resisters across the
Natal border, whence they returned as fast as they
were deported.
200
M^^M
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ussgffyt^ jBiSg^jgg t
1
i
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1
LORD AMPTHILL
PresitlcJit o" the South Afiira British Iiidinn Committee, London.
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
Into the many details and ramifications of the
■struggle at this stage it is unnecessary now to enter ;
•suffice it to recall the Delagoa Bay incidents, when
the Portuguese Government acted as the catspaw of
the Transvaal, in preventing the entry into the Trans-
vaal of returning Indians lawfully resident there,
the various test-cases brought in the Supreme Court
against the Government, some of which were lost
and some won, the voluntary insolvency of Mr. A. M.
Gachalia, the Chairman of the British Indian Asso-
ciation, who preferred to keep his oath and preserve
his honour to the sordid joy of money-making, the
imprisonment of Indians of all classes by hundreds,
the appeals to India, where protest meetings were
held in different parts of the country, the financial
help of Natal, the arousing of enthusiasm amongst
Indians all over the country, the activity of Lord
Ampthill's Committee in London, and of the British
Press, the bitter controversies that raged in the
Transvaal papers, the latent sympathy of not a few
Transvaal Europeans culminating in the formation
of Mr. Hosken's Committee, that rendered such
splendid and patriotic service in a number of ways,
the public letter to the Times, the refusal of the Royal
Assent to anti-Indian measures passed by the Legis-
latures of Natal and Southern Rhodesia, the Indian
mass meetings in Johannesburg and all over South
Africa, the weakening of some sections of the Indian
201
M. K. Gandhi
community and the strengthening of others, the
amazing revelation of Tamil strength and fortitude»-
the energetic labours of the Indian women, the ruin
and desolation of business and homes, the cruel
jail hardships whose purpose was to crush the spirit
of the Passive Resisters, the magnificent courage of
those who sought imprisonment again and again, the
glorious religious spirit that was developed as the
struggle moved on from phase to phase, to hopes and
fears, the firm faith of the leaders in ultimate success
— all these constitute a pageant of incidents and
emotions that gave greatness to the Passive Resist-
ance movement, and that bestowed upon it its most
distinguishing characteristics.
New life was given to the movement in the middle
of 190j, when two deputations were authorised to
proceed to England and India respectively, to culti-
vate public opinion there and to seek assistance. As
the delegates were ,on the point of leaving, the
majority of them were arrested and imprisoned as
passive resisters, doubtless with the intention of pre-
venting the departure of the remainder. But the
community insisted that the deputations should go,.
In England, interest in the question was strongly
revived, and, as Transvaal Ministers were there at
the time in connection with the Draft Act of Union,
the Imperial authorities strove to effect a settlement ;.
but General Smuts proved obdurate, and flatly
202
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
declined to remove the statutory racial bar and subs-
titute for it general legislation, though it was clear
that the Asiatic Act was doomed. The deputation,
which had been led by Mr. Gandhi, therefore returned
to South Africa, having accomplished only a part of
what it had hoped to achieve, but having arranged
for a body of volunteers who undertook to collect
funds and keep the subject before ihe public.
The deputation to India, heralded by the tragic
death of Nagappan shortly after his release from
prison, was of a different character. Mr. Polak, who
was the sole remaining delegate, placed himself un-
reservedly in the hands of the Hon. Mr. Gokhale,
whose Servants of India Society arranged for meet-
ings to be held in every part of the country, from
Bombay to Rangoon, from Madras to Lahore.
Tremendous enthusiasm was aroused, Indian patriotic
pride in the sufferers in South Africa was awakened ^
and funds were energetically collected, following the
example of Mr. Ratan J. Tata, some ;^10,000 being
contributed for the maintenance of the struggle,
ruling princes, sending generous subscriptions. All
sections of the people united in demanding the
intervention of the Imperial Government, and at
the historic session of the Imperial Council at
Calcutta, the Government of India announced its
acceptance of Mr. Gokhale's resolution, unanimously
supported, to take powers to prohibit the further
203
M. K. Gandhi
•recruitment of indentured labour in India for Natal.
After a thirteen months' campaign, India had been
educated on the South African Indian question to a
degree that aroused the attention and anxiety of the
Home authorities, and when angry protests came
from every part of the country against the Transvaal
Government's action in deporting to India large
numbers of Passive Resisters (many of them born in
South Africa), with the object of breaking up the
movement, the Imperial Government, upon the
urgent representations of the Government of India,
successfully implored the Transvaal — and subse-
quently, the Union — Administration to cease to
deport. The deportees subsequently returned to South
Africa, but with the loss of Narayansamy, who died
at Delagoa Bay after having been unlawfully denied
a landing anywhere in British territory.
Meanwhile, the four South African Colonies had
become Provinces of the Union of South Africa, and
the Imperial Government, convinced at last of the
justice of the Indian cause, and taking advantage of
the possibilities of the new situation, addressed to the
Union Government the memorable despatch of
October 7, 1910, in which they powerfully recom-
mended the repeal of Act 2 of 1907, the removal of
the racial bar, and the substitution for the latter of
the Indian suggestion of non-racial legislation
-modified by administrative differentiation, effectively
204
Appendix I, — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
limiting future Indiau immigration to a minimum,
number annually of highly educated men, whose
services would be required for the higher needs of
the Indian community. To this despatch was
appended the condition that nothing that was done
to settle the Transvaal controversy at the expense of
the Indians residing in the Coast Provinces would be
satisfactory to the Imperial Government. The Union
Ministers responded in a friendly manner, the struggle
became less acute, and ultimately, in 1911, a Union
Immigration Bill was published, purporting to settle
the controversy that had been raging for so long. The-
new measure, however, obviously did not serve its
purpose, for, whilst repealing the Asiatic Act of 1907,..
saving the ri&hts of minors that had been declared by
the Appellate Division of the Surpreme Court, in the
Chotabhai case, the Bill did not remove the racial bar,
but rather extended it throughout the Union, by
reason of the Orange Free State entry question, and
it took away other rights not only from Transvaal
Indians, but from those resident in the Coast Pro-
vinces. An unanimous outcry arose from them,
negotiations were re-opened, and the suggestion was
thrown out by the Passive Resistance leaders that the
Bill should be replaced by one limited to the Trans-
vsfal alone, which, however, was not adopted.
Eventually it was found impossible to pass the Bill,
and a provisional "settlement was arranged, whereby
205
M. K. Gandhi
the Indians undertook to suspend Passive Resistance,
whilst the Government promised to introduce satis-
factory legislation in the 1912 session of Parliament,
meanwhile administering the law as though it had
already been altered, and specially exempting, in
terms of an earlier understanding, a limited number
of educated entrants into the Transvaal.
Taking advantage of the lull, and of the better
feeling aroused at the time of the King's Coronation
in India, a further mission was sent there, in order
to maintain public interest and to place before the
Government the points upon which the Indian com-
munity insisted. The measure of 1912, however,
met with no better fate than its predecessor, and the
provisional agreement was extended for another year.
It was then that preparations were made throughout
South Africa to welcome the Hon. Mr. Gokhale,
whose tour in the sub-continent is still fresh in the
minds of all. He succeeded, as no one else had yet
done in raising the discussion of the Indian problem
to the Imperial plane, and won the admiration even
of his opponents of his moderation and statssman-
ship. It was during this visit that Indians later
alleged, on his authority, that a promise of repeal of
the iniquitous £Z tax was made by the Government
in view of the fact that, for over a year, further in-
dentured immigration from India had been prohibited
by the Indian Government. .
206
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
When the 1913 Bill, however, was introduced into
Parliament, and the Indian leaders observed the
spirit in which the Indian question was dealt with by
the Union Ministers, grave fears were aroused that a
situation, which had already become still further
complicated by the position created by the Searle
judgment, invalidating practically every Indian
marriage would onc3 more developinto a catastrophe.
The Government were warned that the marriage
question must be settled if peace were desired, and
that the racial bar mast ba finally removed from the
measure. Amendments were introduced and
accepted hy the Government, purporting to settle
the marriage controversy on the basis of the recogni-
tion of de facto monogamous marriages, but, evea as
passed, the Bill failed to satisfy the demands of the
Passive Resisters, whilst the £3 tax remained un-
repealed- A final attempt was made by the Indian
leaders to avoid a revival of the struggle, and negotia-
tions were once more opened with the Governmint,
So as to obtain a promise of remedial legislation in
the next session of Parliament. They were, however,
interrupted by the European strike, during the heat
of which Mr. Gandhi, as spokesman of the Passive
Resisters, undertook to refrain from pressing the
Indian case for the moment. Meanwhile, a mission
bad proceeded to England to co-operate with the
Hon. Mr. Gokhale, at his urgent invitation, in order
207
M. K. Gandhi
to bring home to the Imperial Government and the
British public the extreme gravity of the situation,.
and the certainty of the extension of the demands-
of Passive Resistors unless a settlement of the
points in dispute were promptly arrived at. All
these representations, however, failed to conciliate
the Union Government, which proved obdurate,
and a final warning was sent to them stating
that unless assurances of the introduction of
legislative and administrative measures, in the
following session, were given to recognise in law
the validity of de facto monogamous marriage, to
remove the racial bar, as regards the Free State, to-
restore the right of entry into the Cape Colony tO'
South African-born Indian?, to repeal the £3 tax,
and to administer justly and with due regard to
vested interests existing legislation operating
harshly against Indians, Passive Resistance would
be immediately revived. The warning was ignored,
and the struggle was resumed in all its bitterness
and on a much wider scale than before. Its incidents-
are too fresh in the public mind to need more
than a brief mention — the compaign of the Indian
women whose marriages had been dishonoured by a
fresh decision of the Supreme Court, at the instigation
of the Government, the awakening of the free and
indentured labourers all over Natal, the tremendous
strikes, the wonderful and historic, strikers' march ofc
208
Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
protest into the Transvaal, the horrible scenes
enacted into the latter in the effort to crush the
strikers and compel them to resume work, the
arrest and imprisonment of the principal leaders and
of hundreds — almost thousands — of the rank and
file, the enormous Indian mass meetings held in
Durban, Johannesburg, and: other parts of the
Union, the fierce and passionate indignation aroused
in India, the large sums of money poured into
South Africa from all parts of the Motherland, Lord
Hardinge's famous speech at Madras, in which he
placed himself at the head of Indian public opinion
and his demand for a Commission of Inquiry, the
energetic efforts of Lord Ampthill's Committee, the
hurried intervention of the Imperial authorities, the
appointment over the heads of the Indian commu-
nity of a Commission whose personnel could not
satisfy the Indianst the discharge of the lead^s
whose advice to ignore the Commission was almost
entirely accepted, the arrival of Messrs. Andrews
and Pearson and their wonderful work of reconcili-
ation, the deaths of Harbatsingh and Valiamma, the
strained position relieved only by the interruption of
the second European strike, when Mr. Gandhi once
more undertook not to hamper the Government
whilst they had their hands full with the fresh
difficulty, and, when it had been dealt with, the
entirely new spirit of friendliness, trust, and co-opera-
209
14
M. K, Gandhi
tion that was found to have been created by the
moderation of the great Indian leader and the loving
influence spread around him by Mr. Andrews as he
proceeded with his great Imperial mission.
All these things are of recent history, as are the
favourable recommendation of the Commission on
practically every point referred to it and out of
which Passive Resistance had arisen, the adoption
of the commission's Report in its entirety by the
Government, the introduction and passing into law
of the Indians' Relief Act, after lengthy and
remarkable debates in both Houses of the Legis-
lature, the correspondence between Mr. Gandhi and
General Smuts, in which the latter undertook, oa
behalf of the Government, to carry through
the administrative reforms that were not
covered by the new Act^ and the Indian
protagonist of passive Resistance formally announced
the conclusion of the struggle and set forth the points
upon which Indians would sooner or latter have to be
satisfied before they could acquire complete equality
of civil status — and the final scenes of departure,
enacted throughout the country, wherein the deaths
and sufferings of the Indian martyrs, Nagappen, Nar-
yansamy, Harbatsingh, and Valiamma, were justified
and sanctified to the world.
It is significant that, as Passive Resistance became
stronger and purer, it succeeded more and more in
'410
Appendix I.— The Struggle of Passive Resistance
bringing together the best representatives of the
European and Indian sections of the population.
With each new phase came new triumphs and new
friends. Whilst every material gain has been put the
restoration of that which was taken away, each gain
of principle has been the concession of that which
had been denied. The struggle commenced with a
protest against the universal distrust and contempt
for the Indian community. That distrust and con-
tempt have been exchanged for trust and respect. It
commenced with the complete ignoring of Indian
sentiment. Gradually that policy, too, was altered,
save that it revived acutely when the Commission
was appointed over the heads of those mainly
interested in its findings. To-day, however, the
leaders are consulted in matters vitally affecting the
welfare of the Indian community, and Passive Resist-
ance has given for these disfranchised ones far more
than the vote could have won, and in a shorter time.
The movement commenced with a demand for the
repeal of the Transvaal Act 2 of 1907. The Act
was repealed and its threatened extension to other
parts of South Africa was completely prevented.
Ai the beginning, racial legislation against Indians
was threatened, so as to drive them from the Colony.
The settlement has removed -the possibility of
racial legislation against Indians throughout the
Empire. Tiie system^ of indentured immigration
211
M. K. Gandhi ,
from India, that had been regarded almost as a
permanent feature of South African economics, has
been ended. The hated £3 tax has been repealed
and its attendant misery and insult destroyed.
Vested rights, that were tending everywhere to
disappear, are to be maintained and protected. The
bulk of Indian marriages, that had never previously
received the sanction of South African law, are
henceforth to be fully recognised in law. But above
and beyond all this is the new spirit of conciliation
that has resulted from the hardships, the sufferings,
the sacrifices of the Passive Resisters. The flag of
legal racial equality has been kept flying, and it is now
recognised that Indians have rights and aspirations
and ideals that cannot be ignored. The struggle has
more ihan proved the immense superiority of right
over might, of soul-force over brute- force, of love and
reason over hate and passion. India has been raised
in the scale of nations, her children in South Africa
have been ennobled, and tbe way is now open to
them to develop their capacities in peace and concord,
and thus contribute their quota to the building up of
this great new nation that is arising in the South
African sub-continent.
212
APPENDIX II
[Mr. M. K. Gandhi in submitting an account
of the Indian Committee of the income and expendi-
ture up to the 31 st January 1915 in connection with
the Passive resistance in South Africa made the
following observations] : —
This struggle had defined principles and removed
disabilities which were in the shape of a national
insult. The larger qnestion of the treatment of
British Indians who come from outside can be dealt
with here. For the question of the local disabilities
still unredressed, the Indian Committee will have to
exercise a ceaseless watch and assist, as heretofore,
the efforts of our countrymen in South Africa. I
feel that I ought to place on record my strong convic-
tion based upon the close personal observatioa
extending over a period of twenty years that the
system of indentured emigration is an evil which
cannot be mended, but can only be ended. No
matter how humane employers ma^ be, it does not
lend itself to the moral well-being of the men
affected by it. I, therefore feel that your committee
should lose no time in approaching the Government
of India with a view to securing the entire abolitioa
213
M. K. Gandhi
of the system for every part of the Empire. I am
bound to mention that the struggle would not have
ended so soon or even as satisfactorily as it did, but
for the generous support rendered by the Mother -
land under the leadership of the great and saintly
patriot, the late Mr. Gokhale, and but for the very
sympathetic and firm attitude tfiken by the noble-
man who at present occupies the Viceregal chair.
HISTORY OF PASSIVE RESISTANCE
IN SOUTH AFRICA
Mr. Gandhi in the course of his letter to the
Secretary, South African Committee, gives the
following brief account of the struggle of passive
resisters in South Africa, to the nwinienance of
Xihich India contributed so generously.
" Whilst the actual courting of imprisonment has
ceased, the struggle itself has by no means ended. In
its last stages nearly 25,000 Indians actively partici-
pated in it, that is one sixth of the total Indian popu-
lation in South Africa. The rest of the community
practically with but few exceptions, supported thg
struggle either by contribution in cash or in kind or by
holding meetings, etc. It began in Transvaal with the
passing of the now famous Asiatic Registration Bill.
In the year the struggle rolled on with temporary
settlements. It included many other things besides
the Asiatic Registration Act, and covered the whole
214
Appendix 11. — History of Passive Resistance
of South Africa at the time of the settlement. The
points in the passive resistance were as follows : (1)
Repeal of the Asiatic Act. (2) Removal of racial
or colour disqualification as to immigration from
Union legislation. (3) Removal of legal disabilities
of Indian wives (4) Removal of annual Poll Tax of
^3 which was payable by ex-indentured Indians,
their wives and grown-up children, (i) Just admini-
stration of the existing laws with due regard to
vested rights.
All these points are covered by the settlement of
the last year, which I consider to be a complete
vindication of the passiva resistance, and I venture
to state that if more has not been gained more was
not and could not be asked for as an item in the
passive resistance, for a passive resister has to frame
his minimum as well as his maximum, and he dare
not ask for more nor can he be satisfied with less.
FUTURE WORK
But I do not wish to be understood to mean that
nothing further remains to be done in South Africa,
or that everything has been gained. We have only
fought for the removal of legal disabilities as to
immigration, but administratively we have taken
note of the existing conditions and prejudices. We
fought to keep the theory of the British Constitution
in tact so that the practice may some day approach
215
M. K. Gandhi
the theory as near as possible. There are still
certain laws in South Africa, for instance, the law of
1885, the trade license laws of the Cape and Natal,
which icontinue to cause worry- The administration
of the Immigration Law is not all that it should be.
For these, however, passive resistance is not applied
and is at present inapplicable, its application being
confined to grievances which are generally felt in a
community and are known to hurt its self-respect or
conscience. Any of the grievances referred to by me
may, any day, advance to that stage. Till then, only
the ordinary remedies of petition etc., can be adopted.
Letters received from South Africa, show that diffi-
culties are being experienced in some cases acutely
by our countrymen, and if much has not been heard
of them in India just now, it is because of the
extraordinary self-restraint of our countrymen in
South Africa, during the crisis that has overtaken
the Empire.
AHIMSA
There seems to be no historical warrant for the
belief that an exaggerated practice of Ahimsa
synchronised with our becoming bereft of manly
virtues I During the past 1,500 years we have, as a
nation, given ample proof of physical courage, but we
have been torn by internal dissensions and have been
dominated by love of self instead of -love of country*
216
Appendix II. — Ahitnsa
We have, that is to say, been swayed by the spirit of
irreligion rather than of religion.
I do not know how far the charge of unmanliness
•can be made good against the Jains. I hold no brief
for them. By birth I am a Vaishnavite, and was
taught Ahimsa in my childhood. I have derived
much religious benefit from Jain religious works as I
have from scriptures of the other great faiths of the
world, I owe much to the living company of the
deceased philosopher, Rajachand Kavi, who was a
"Jain by birth. Thus, though my views on Ahimsa
are a result of my study of most of the faiths of the
world, they are now no longer dependent upon the
authority of these works. They are a part of my
life, and if I suddenly discovered that the religious
books read by me bore a different interpretation
from the one I had learnt to give them, I should
still hold to the view of Ahimsa as I am about to set
forth here.
Our Shastras seem to teach that a man who
really practises Ahimsa in its fullness has the world
at his feet ; he so affects his surroundings that even
the snakes and other venomous reptiles do him no
harm. This is said to have been the experience of
St. Francis of Assisi.
In its negative form it means not injuring any
living being whether by body or mind. I may not,
•therefore, hurt the person of any wrong-doer or bear
217
M. K. Gandhi
any ill-will to him and so cause him mental suffer-
ing. This statement does not cover suffering caused
to the wrong-doer by natural acts of mine which do
not proceed from ill-will. It, therefore, does not
prevent me from withdrawing from his presence
a child whom he, we shall imagine, is about to
strike. Indeed, the proper practice of Ahimsa
requires me to withdraw the intended victim from
the wrong-doer, if I am in any way whatsoever the
guardian of such a child. It was, therefore, most
proper for the passive resisters of South Africa to
have resisted the evil that the Union Government
sought to do them. They bore no ill-will to it.
They showed this by helping the Government
whenever it needed their help. Their resistance con-
sisted of disobedience of the orders of the Government,
even to the extent of suffering death at their hands.
Ahimsa requires deliberate self-suffering, not a
deliberate injuring of the supposed wrong-doer,
In its positive form, Ahimsa means the largest
love, the greatest charity. If I am a follower of
Ahimsa, I must love my enemy. I must apply
the same rules to the wrong-doer who is my enemy
or a stranger to me, as 1 would to my wrong-doing
father or son. This active Ahimsa necessarily
includes truth and fearlessness. A man cannot
deceive the loved one, he does not fear or frighten
him or her. Gift of life is the greatest of all gifts.
218
Appendix II. — Ahimsa
A man who gives it in reality, disarms all hostility.
He has paved the way for an honourable understand-
ing. And none who is himself subject to fear can
bestow that gift. He must, therefore, ba himself
fearless. A man cannot then practise Ahimsa and
be a coward at the same time. The practice of
Ahimsa calls forth the greatest courage. It is the
most soldierly of soldier's virtues. General Gordon
has been represented in a famous statue as bearing
only a stick. This takes us far on the road to
Ahimsa. But a soldier, who needs the protection of
even a stick, is to that extent so much the less a
soldier. He is the true soldier who knows how to
die and stand his ground in the midst of a hail of
bullets. Such a one was Ambarish, who stood his
ground without lifting a finger though Durvasa
did his worst. The Moors who were being pounded
by the French gunners -ind who rushed to the guns'
mouths with ' Allah ' on their lips, showed much the
same type of courage. Only theirs was the courage
of desperation. Ambarisha's was due to love. Yet
the Moorish valour, readiness to die, conquered the
gunners. They frantically waved their hats, ceased
firing, and greeted their erstwhile enemies as com-
rades. And so the South African passive resisters in
their thousands were ready to die rather than sell
their honour for a little personal ease. This was
Ahimsa in its active form. It never barters away
219
M. K. Gandhi
•honour. A helpless girl in the hands of a follower
of Ahimsa finds better and surer protection than in
the hands of one who is prepared to defend her only
to the point to which his weapons would carry him.
The tyrant, in the first instance, will have to walk to
his victim over the dead body of her defender ; in
the second, he has but to overpower the defender ;
for it is assumed that the canon of propriety in the
second instance will be satisfied which the defender
has fought to the extent of his physical valour. In
the first instance, as the defender has matched his
very soul against the mere body of the tyrant, the
odds are that the soul in the latter will be awakened,
and the girl would stand an infinitely greater chance
of her honour being protected than in any other
conceivable circumstance, barring, of course, that of
her own personal courage.
If we are unmanly to-day, we are so, not because
we do not know how to strike, but because we fear
to die. He is no follower of Mahavira, the apostle
of Jainism, or of Buddha or of the Vedas, who being
afraid to die, takes flight before any danger, real or
imagindry, all the while wishing that somebody else
would remove the danger by destroying the person
causing it. He is no follower of Ahimsa who does
not care a straw if he kills a man by inches by
deceiving him in trade, or who would protect by
•force of arms a few cows and make away with the
220
Appendix II. — Ahimsa
butcher, or who, in order to do a supposed good to
his country, does not mind killing off a few officials.-
All these are actuated by hatred, cowardice, and
fear. Here love of the cow or the country is a vague
thing intended to satisfy one's vanity or soothe a-
stinging conscience.
Ahimsa, truly understood, is, in ray humble,
opinion, a panacea for all evils mundane and extra-
mundane. We can never overdo it. Just at present
we are not doing at all. Ahimsa does not displace
the practice of other virtues, but renders their
practice imperatively necessary before it can be
practised even in its rudiments. Mahavira and
Buddha were soldiers, and so was Tolstoy. Only
they saw deeper and truer into their profession,
and found the secret of a true, happy, honourable,
and godly life. Let us be joint sharers with these
teachers, and this land of ours will once more be the
abode of Gods. — {Modern Review).
CIVIC FREEDOM
This is an incident that happened when he went
to England: —
A gentleman on board said, "I see you are going
to London in order to get nd of the day's collar!"
Precisely ; it was because they did not want to wear
a dog's collar that they had put up that fight. They
were .willing to sacrifice everything forjsentiment, but
231
M. K. Gandhi
it was a noble sentiment. It was a sentiment that
had to be cherished as a religious sentiment. It was
a sentiment that bound people together; it was a sen-
timent that bound creatures to the Creator. That
was the sentiment for which he asked them, advised
them, if necessary, to die. Their action would be
reflected throughout the British Dominions, through
the length and breadth of India, and they were now
upon their trial. There was no better and no
fear for a man who believed in God. No matter
what might be said, he would always repeat that it
was a struggle for religious liberty. By religion
they did not mean formal religion, or customary
religion, but that religion which underlay all
religions, which brought them face to face with their
Maker. If they ceased to be men ; if, on taking
a deliberate vow, they broke that vow in order that
they might remain in the Transvaal without physical
inconvenience, they undoubtedly forsook their God.
To repeat again the words of the Jew of Nazareth,
those who would follow God had to leave the world,
and he had called upon his countrymen, in that
particular instance, to leave the world and cling to
God, as a child would cling to the mother's breast.
Their natural deaths they could die far outside the
Transvaal, wherever there was a piece of earth given
them, but if they would die a noble death, a man's
death, there was only one course open to them. . .
222
Appendix II. — Women and Passive Resistance
The handful of Indians who had a right to remain in
the Transvaal should be allowed to remain as
worthy citizens of a mighty Empire, but should not
remain as beasts so long as he could help it.
WOMEN AND PASSIVE RESISTANCE
Conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi: —
The ladies were allowed to join the struggle after
great effort was made by them to take part in
it. When Mrs. Gandhi understood the marriage
difficulty, she was incensed and said to Mr. Gandhi :
*' Then I am not your wife, according to the Jaws of
this country." Mr. Gandhi replied that that was so
and added that their children were not theirs.
" Then " she said " let us go to India." Mr. Gandhi
replied that that would be cowardly and that it
would not solve the difHculty. " Could I not, then,
join the struggle and be imprisoned myself ?" Mr.
Gandhi told her she could but that it was not a
small matter. Her health was not good, she had
not known that type of hardship and it would be
disgraceful if, after her joining thd struggle, she
weakened. But Mrs. Gandhi was not to be moved.
The other ladies, so closely related and living on
the Settlement, would not be gainsaid. They insisted
that, apart from their own convictions, just as strong
as Mrs. Gandhi's, they could not possibly remain out
and allow Mrs. G.andhi to go to gaol. The proposal
223
M. K. Gandhi
caused the gravest anxiety. The step was momen-
tous. If the decision was based on the impulse
of the moment, they and those who allowed them to
join might have to rue the day that it was made and
accepted. Then how could they ensure being arrested
without making a fuss ? They wanted to avoid all
publicity till they were safely in gaol. Then there
was the risk of the Government leaving them alone
as being harmless maniacs and fanatics. If, at the
last moment, they flinched, their prominence might
seriously damage the cause they sought to advance^
All these and several other considerations suggested
that the best course would be to diliberately and
openly decline to disclose their identity on courting
arrest. And if the move failed even then, they were
to proceed to Johannesburg and take up hawking
without licences and compel arrest. Any hardship
was light enough compared to that of having to-
bear the insult to them or their sisters of not being
considered lawful wives of their husbands.
224
APPENDIX III
APPRECIATIONS OF Mr. GANDHI
By Lord Ampthill
Mr. Doke does not pretend to give more than a
short biography and character sketch of Mr. Mohan-
das Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of the Indian
community in Transvaal, but the importance of the
book is due to the facts that men and matters are
inseparably connected in all human affairs, and that
the proper comprehension of political affairs in parti-
cular ever depends on a knowledge of the character
and motives of those who direct them.
Although I am not in a position to criticise I do
not doubt that in these pages the facts are accurately
recorded, and I have sufficient reason to believe that
the appreciation is just.
The subject of the sketch, Mr. Gandhi, has been
denounced in this country, even by responsible per-
sons, as an ordinary agitator ; his acts have been
misrepresented as mere vulgar defiance of the law ;
there have not been wanting suggestions that his
motives are these of self-interest and pecuniary
profit.
225
15
M. K. Gandhi
A perusal of these pages ought to dispel any such
notions from the mind of any fair man who has been
misled into entertaining them. And with a better
knowledge of the man there must come a better
knowledge of the matter. — (Extract from the preface
to Mr. Doke'sbook — Biography of Mr. Gandhi).
By Mrs. BESANT
Mr. Gandhi's birth-day was celebrated at the
GokhaWs Hall, Madras, in Oct. 1917, when Mrs.
Besant before unveiling a portrait presented by Mr.
G. A. Natesan spoke as follows : —
Friends,— If Mr. Gandhi had known that this
gathering was to be held, he would have objected to
it very strongly, but we have to think of the country
and not of Mr. Gandhi alone. If Mr. Gandhi chooses
to develop so noble a character as he has done, he no
longer belongs to himself : he belongs to the Mother-
land (Cheers), and there is nothing more inspiring
especially to the young, than to have held up before
them the example of such a man. We cannot permit
him to live in the obscurity that he loves. His deeds
make a light around him, and if he tries to hide him-
self in the dark, he shines so brilliantly there that
the darkness only increases the radiance of the light
that he sheds. (Cheers.) Hence, we feel that what-
ever his personal ideas may be, India cannot spare
him bat must have him standing as an example of
226
IZZ
fi 02
Appendix III. — Appreciations oj Uy. Gandhi
an ideal Indian, for Mr. Gandhi represents in this
country the highest ideal of a Sannyasi, a man who
has renounced everything including himself and
lives only for service. Two forces of service are
recognised in the great faith to which Mr. Gandhi
belongs ; one is the service of a little developed man
who serves in order to learn, to whom the duty of
more developed people is that they should associate
with him, that they should help him to educate him-
self, to help him to grow in strength, in purity and
in knowledge. That is the service which is involuntary
because practically compelled. Nature has not yet
developed in such men the power to 'do aught save
learn by service. Whatever body they may be born
in, they are undeveloped in a true humanity of the
spirit. Then as evolution proceeds and humanity
rises from step to step, at last having acquired ex-
perience and courage and wisdom and will-power, the
whole of these are gathered up into a man who is
touching perfection, and then asking nothing more
from the world, desiring nothing that the world can
^ive, having learnt what the world has to teach, and
needing nothing more, then ihe takes that highest
service which is voluntary, which is gladly given
which consecrates him to the service of humanity so
long as there are any who need his help, so long as
there are any whom he can lift nearer to his own
position. That is the, position of a Sannyasi— the
227
M. K. Gandhi
servant of humanity — and it is that position in which
Mr. Gandhi stands. It is the highest Hindu ideal,
and he embodies it in himself and you will find that
he has brought with him all the various virtues
which mark the ascending marks of humanity. It is
such a man that we honour here. He does not
change, he does not actively oppose, but he sits as
a rock. When that is the attitude of a man in con-
nection with his dealings with the Government, the
best thing that the Government does is to put him on
a Committee. This is Mr.Gokhale's Hall, and it is
but fitting that what Mr. Gokhale admired should be
admired by all who are gathered here. (Cheers.)
By SIR P. M. MEHTA
Mr. Gandhi was a great believer in reason and in
argument. He called him an unpractical man, and
with all the admiration he had for Mr. Gandhi he
disagreed with him on this point. He asked for too-
little (Laughter). If he had asked for the full rights
of every Indian for access to the British dominions
and had stuck to the full demand he might have got
something, (Laughter). It was a great blunder, but it
showed the reasonable character of the campaign led.
by Mr. Gandhi. He was again at the old game. What
was the result ? No one would listen to him, and
still Indians in South Africa were asked to practice
moderation !
228
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
By LADY MEHTA
In moving this Resolution I do not propose to
tefer to the serious developments that have arisen or
to discuss the merits of the assertions and denials
which have been made on either side, though it would
not be difficult to point out that many of the denials
contain in themselves admissions which it is difficult
for us to contemplate without intense pain and
anguish, I may be permitted however to say that it is
impossible not to regret that there are people who in
their wisdom have been lavish in advising the leaders
of the Indian struggle in South Africa and their sor-
rowing and indignant sympathisers, in this country to
exercise the virtue of moderation. Alas I It is a pity
that these critics do not themselves practise the virtue
which thejy unctuously preach, for if they to do so
they would realize that the constant words for years
and years of the great noble and self sacrificing leader
of the Indian struggle, Mr. Gandhi and his associ-
atcs^ have been unswerving loyalty on the one hand,
and patience^ resignation and above all moderation
on the other. Moderation has been the guiding prin-
ciple of Mr. Gandhi s gospel under the most trying
circumstances. The loyal, mild, patient and peace-
abiding Indian subjects of our gracious Sovereign in
South Africa have suffered humiliation and hardships
for years hoping against hope believing in the justice
and righteousness of their cause and confident in the
229
M. K. Gandhi
ultimate protection of the Crown to which South
Africans as well as ourselves owe submission and
allegiance. They as well as we, could have claimed
equal rights of entry and residence in any part of the
dominions of our common Sovereign as guaranteed
to us by solemn, charters. They as well, as we could
have knocked at open doors in South Africa as well as
Europeans have claimed to knock at open doors in all
parts of Asia, indeed everywhere in the world. But so
moderate have been Mr. Gandhi and his associates.
that they bowed to the unrelenting fates and submit-
ted practically and substantially to abandon all
claims to free immigration. All that they asked for
was that Indians already settled in South Africa
should not be denied the bare rights which the sim-
plest dignity of humanity required for free men and
free citizens.
By Mrs. SAROJINI NAIDU
Mrs. Sarojini Naidu has 'addressed the following
letter to Lady Mehta : —
Dear Lady Mehta, — I venture to write to you as
I;see by the papers that you are the presiding genius
of the forthcoming function to welcome my friend
Mrs. Gandhi home again. I feel that though it may
be the special privilege of the ladies of Bombay
to accord her this personal ovation, all Indian women
must desire to associate themselves with you in
230
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
spirit to do honour to one who by her race, qualities
of courage, devotion, and self-sacrifice has so signally
justified and fulfilled the high traditions of Indian
womanhood.
I believe I am one of the few people now back
in India who had the good fortune to share the
intimate homelife of Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi in
England : and I cherish two or three memories
of this brief period in connection with the kindly
and gentle lady, whose name has become a house-
hold word in our midst with her broken health and
her invincible fortitude — the fragile body of a child
and the indomitable spirit of a martyr.
I recall my first meeting with them the day after
their arrival in England. It was on a rainy August
afternoon last year that I climbed the staircase
of an ordinary London dwelling house to find myself
confronted with a true Hindu idol of radiant and
ascetic simplicity. The great South African leader
who, to quote Mr. Gokhale's apt phrase, had moulded
heroes out of clay, was reclining, a little ill and
weary, on the floor eating his frugal meal of nuts
and fruit (which 1 shared) and his wife was busy and
content as though she were a mere modest house-
wife absorbed in a hundred details of household
service, and not the world- famed heroine of a
hundred noble sufferings in a nation's cause.
I recall too the brilliant and thrilling occasion
231
M. K. Gandhi
when men and women of all nationalities from East
and West were gathered together to greet thera
in convincing proof that true greatness speaks with a
universal tongue and compels a universal homage.
She sat by her husband's side, simple and serene
and dignified in the hour of triumph as she had
proved herself simple and serene and dauntless
in the hour of trial and tragedy.
I have a vision too of her brave, frail, pain worn
hand must have held aloit the lamp of her country's
honour undimmed in one alien land, working at
rough garment? for wounded soldiers in another
. , . . Red Cross work.
But, there is one memory that to me is most
precious and poignant, which I record as my per-
sonal tribute to her, and which serves not only
to confirm but to complete and crown all the
beautiful and lofty virtues that have made her an
ideal comrade and helpmate to her husband. On
her arrival in England in the early days of the
war, one felt that Mrs. Gandhi was like a bird
with eager outstretched wings longing to annihi-
late the time and distance that lay before her
and her far-off India, and impatient of the brief
and necessary interruption in her homeward flight.
The woman's heart within her was full of
yearning for the accustomed sounds and scenes
of her own land and the mother's heart within her
232
Appendix 111. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
full of passionate hunger for the beloved faces
of her children ..... And yet when her
husband soon after, felt the call, strong and urgent
to offer his services to the Empire and to form^
the Ambulance Corps that has since done such
splendid work, she reached the high watermark of
her loyal devotion to him for she accepted his deci-
sion and strengthened his purpose with a prompt and
willing renunciation of all her most dear and pressing
desires. This to me is the real meaning of Sati.
And it is this ready capacity for self-negation that
has made me recognise anew that the true standard
of a country's greatness lies not so much in its
intellectual achievement and material prosperity as
the undying spiritual ideals of love and service and
sacrifice that inspire and sustain the mothers of the
race.
I pray that the men of India may learn to
realize in an increasing measure that it is through
the worthiness of their lives and the nobility of
their character alone that we women can hope to
find the opportunity and inspiration to adequately
fulfil the finest possibilities of our womanhood even
as Mrs. Gandhi has fulfilled hers.
Believe me,
Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) Sauojini Naidu.
233
M. K. Gandhi
By Mr. GOKHALE
Mr. Gandhi has not entered on the struggle
without the fullest realisation of the situation and
certainly he has not entered on it m light-hearted
spirit. He knows that odds this time are tremendously
against Indians. The Government will not yield if
it can help it. The Imperial Governmeni will
be reluctant to exert any further pressure in favour of
passive resistance and among Indians themselves
already exhausted by the last struggle weakened
persons will be found shrinking from sacrifices
involved and advocating submission. But Mr. Gandhi
is full of courage and what is more he is full of hope.
He has planned his campaign carefully and whether
he succeeds or fails he will push on like a hero
to the end. The struggle this time, as 1 have already
pointed out, is not confined to one province but
extends to the whole of South Africa and not only-
men but women are taking part in it. From what I
have seen of Mr. Gandhi's hold over our countrymen
in South Africa, I have no doubt in my mind that
thousands will be glad to suffer under his banner and
bis spirit will inspire them all. The last telegram
v/hich I had from him two days ago speaks in
enthusiastic terras of bravery and heroism which
women who are taking part in the struggle are
showing. They are courting arrest. They put up
with ill-treatment and even assaults without
234
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
complaint and they are spreading the movement
in all directions with wonderful zeal. The horrors
of jail- life in South Africa with Kaffir warders devoid
of all notions of humanity for Indian prisoners do
not deter them and they are lifting the whole struggle
to a plane which the last struggle even at its highest
did not reach. Already two thousand families
of indentured and exindentured men have joined the
struggle. They are suspending work in collieries and
on fields and unless Government guarantees repeal
of £3 tax next season, industries which depend on
Indian labour will soon be paralyzed and Govern-
ment will have big job on its hands. Mr. Gandhi also
went on to say that a growing minority of English is
showing itself increasingly favourable to Indian
demands and that the leaders of the Unionist party
who did so much for us last session will, it is
expected press Indian case with vigour when Parlia-
ment reassembles. But even if no assistance comes
from any quarter, if the bulk of passive resisters
retire from the struggle after enduring hardships for
some time and if the prospect is altogether dark
instead of being hopeful even then one hundred men
and forty women are determined to perish in
this struggle if need be rather than withdraw from
it without achieving their object. They think that if
everything else fails this supreme sacrifice on their
part is necessaryto prevent the Indian community in
235
M. K. Gandhi
South Africa from being crushed out of existence
altogether. Do not let us be discouraged by a
telegram which appeared the other day in papers
about some Indians in Durban opposing this passive
resistance movement and wanting to submit quietly
to the indignities of the new position. When we
think of suffering which will have to be endured and
ruin that may have to be faced, is ic any wonder
knowing ourselves as we do that some Indians
in South Africa should shrink from the ordeal ? Is
not the wonder rather this that so many men
and women, Hindus, Mahomedans and Parsees,
well-to-do (.and poor, should come forward to
undergo sacrifice ?
By BABU MOTILAL GHOSE
* * »
Be it borne in mind that the Indian labourers
under the leadership of a saintly character like
Mr. Gandhi and several other selfless and noble-
hearted Indians and Europeans, are fighting not
only for themselves but also for their motherland
and the British Empire, nay, for humanity itself.
Indeed the unparalleled spirit of self-sacrifice and
heroic endurance they are displaying is bound to
elevate the soul of every man who has a drop of
humanity in him.
236
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
By THE
HON. MOULVI A. K. FAZUL HAQUE
Extract from a speech at a protest meeting at the
Calcutta Town Hall, said : —
* *
That this meeting accords its unqualified support
to the passive resistance movement initiated by
Indians for the redress of their grievances in South
Africa and expresses its high sense of admiration for
the heroism and self-sacrifice displayed by Mr.
Gandhi and his followers and fellow-workers in
carrying on this campaign against heavy odds.
He said there was no Indian whose sympathy did
not go to the Indians in South Africa who were
stru:|gling, or the honor of their country. They in
South Africa were forced to organise the passive
resistance movement. Mr. Gandhi the organiser of
the movement was its soul-force as it stood for higher
to physical force and it was proper that they should
record admiration for Mr. Gandhi.
Mr. GANDHI IN LONDON
Welcome receptioiN at the Hotel Cecil
A reception in honour of Mr. and Mrs. M. K
Gandhi and Mr. Kellenbach was held at the Hotel
Cecil on Saturday afternoon (8th August 1914).
About 150 persons attended, including Mr.
237
M. K. Gandhi
Bhupendranath Basu (Chairman of the Reception
Committee) the Rt. Hon. Ameer Ali Singh, C. I. E.,
Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, Princes Sophia Daleep Singh,
Lady Muir Mackenzie, Mrs. Despard, Mrs. Montefore,
Lala Lajpat Rai, Hon. Mr. Krishna Sahay, Mr. M. A.
Jinnah. Mr. S. Sinha, Mr. W. Donglashall, Mr. J. H.
Polak, Colonel Varliker, Mr. F. H. Brown, Dr.
J. N. Mehta, Mr. Fredrick Grabb, Mr. E. Dalgado,
Mr: Syud Hussan, Dr. A. K. Kumaraswamy, Mr.
Albert Cartwright, Mr. S. A. Bhisey, Mr. Zafar Ali
Khan, Mr. M. M. Gandevia and Mr. S. Sorabji.
It was mentioned that letters of apology had been
received from the Prime Minister, the Marquess of
Crewe, K, G., Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Earl
Roberts, Lord Ampthill, Lord Lamington, Lord
Harris, the Hon. Mr. Gokhale, Mr. Ramsay
MacDonald, M. P., Mr. Kier Hardie, M, P., and
Mr. L. Harcourt, M.P.
Lord Gladstone wrote : —
" I much regret that my wife and I leave London
to-morrow and cannot accept your courteous invi-
tation to meet Mr. and Mrs. M. K. Gandhi and Mr.
Kellenbach on Saturday. I much regret this, for the
occasion will be a happy one as marking the settle-
ment of outstanding British Indian ^grievances in
South Africa in which your guests have taken so
leading and so effective a part. Mr. Gandhi has
fthown a single-minded devotion* to his cause which
238
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi'.
lias won the admiration of all who understood the
difficulty and danger of the position."
Mr. BHUPENDRANATH BASU
Mr. Bhupendranath Basu said that the Committee
felt that, in spite of the great anxieties connected
with the European situation, they could not let the
occasion of Mr, and Mrs. Gandhi's visit to this
country pass unnoticed. Mr. Gandhi's work in
South Africa was known throughout the civilized
world. His great devotion for principles won for hira
the affection of the fellow subjects, and had warm
admiration from his strongest opponents. Mr.
Gandhi's leadership had its strength in devotion to
the sacred doctrine of returning love for hate. The
Indians in South Africa had followed his leadership
with absolute fidelity, being confident of his single-
minded zeal for their cause. Mrs. Gandhi's con-
duct reminded him (Mr. Basu) of the spirit of the
women of ancient India. Her work for the husband
and for the cause he had taken up were worthy of
the best traditions of their country's womanhood.
Mr. Kallenbach, a stranger to them in race and
creed, had suffered with them and for them, and his
attachment for their cause would never be forgotten
by a grateful people. With Indians working in
Mr. Gandhi's spirit, they need never despair for the
future of their country.
o
239
M. K. Gandhi
Mrs. SAROJINI NAIDU
Mrs. Sarojini Naidu said that the Indian people
were under a deep debt of gratitude to Mr,
Gandhi's work in South Africa for justice and truth
had been a source of inspiration to the people of
India; Olive Schreiner had described him as the
Mazzini of the Indian movement in South Africa,
and Mrs. Gandhi appealed to them as the ideal of
wifehood and womanhood. On behalf of the
company present, Mrs. Naidu then garlanded Mr^
and Mrs. Gandhi and Mr. Kellenbach.
Mr. Gandhi's in reply said ; —
Mr. Gandhi, in returning thanks, referred to the
great crisis which at the moment overshadowed the
world. He hoped his young friends would " think
Imperially " in the best sense of the word, and to
their duty. With regard to affairs in South Africa,
Mr. Gandhi paid a noble tribute to the devotion of
his followers. It was to the rank and file that their
victory was due. Those who had suffered and died
in the struggle were the real heroes. He acknow-
ledged the splendid help rendered by their fellow
countrymen in India, especially that saintly
politician Mr. Gokhale. Their noble Viceroy, Lord
Hardinge had been a tower of strength to them.
But their [.success would have been impossible had
they not quickened the conscience of the f>eople of
South Africa by their passive resistance movement,
240
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
The masses of the people had given them splendid
help throughout their march into the TransvaaL
General Botha and his Government had also played
the game, and General Smuts had been most anxious
to do justice. Mr. Andrews had also played a.
noble part during his visit to South Africa last
winter. Mr. Gnndhi regarded the settlement as the
Magna Charta of the South Africa British Indians ^
not because of the substance but because of the
spirit which brought it about. There had been a.
change in the attitude of the people of South Africa
and the settlement had been sealed by sufferings of
the Indian community. It had proved that if
Indians were in earnest they were irresistible. There
had been no compromise in principles. Some
grievances remained unredressed but these vrere
capable of adjustment by pressure from Downing
Street, Simla and from South Africa itself. The
future rested upon themselves. If they proved
worthy of better conditions, they would get them.
THE INDIAN FIELD AMBULANCE CORPS-
An Appeal for more recruits
To The Editor of " India."
Sir.
There were at Netley Hospital last Sunday nearly
470 Indian wounded soldiers. Many more are
expected to arrive shortly, if they are not there
241
16
M. K. Gandhi
already. The need for Indian- Volunteer orderlies is
greater than ever. Nearly 70 members of the local
Indian corps are already serving as nurses there.
Leaving aside the medical members of the corps,
there are now very few left to answer the further
call when it comes.
May I therefore trespass upon the hospitality of
your columns to appeal to the Indian young men
residing in the United kingdom to enlist without
delay ? In my humble opinion it ought to be our
proud privilege to nurse the Indian soldiers back to
health. Colonel Bakers' cry is for more orderlies.
And in order to make up the requisite number, as
also to encourage our young men several elderly
Indians occupying a high position have gone or are
going to Netley as orderlies. Among them Mr.
M. A. Turkhad, a former vice-president of the
Rajkumar College in Kaithiawar, Mr. J. M. Parikh,
Barrister-at-law, and Lieutenent Colonel Kanta
Prasad of the Indian Medical service (Retired) who
has served in five campaigns.
I hope that the example set by these gentlemen
will inspire others with a like zeal, and that many
Indians who can at all afford to do so will be equal
to the emergency that has arisen. Those who
desire to enlist can do so at tha Indian volunteer's
242
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
committee's rooms at 16, Tribovir Road, near
Earlls court, at any time during working hours.
M. K. GANDHI,
Chairman,
Indian Volunteers' Committee.
FAREWELL RECEPTION
AT THE WESTMINISTER PALACE HOTEL
Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi who sailed for India on
Saturday (Deer. 1914) were entertained by their
friends on the previous afternoon at a farewell
reception at the Westminister Palace Hotel.
Mr. J. M. Parikh presided and among those present
were Sir. Henry Cotton, Mr. Charles Roberts M. P.
(Under Secretary of State for India) Mrs. Olive
Schreiner, Sir Krishna Gupta, Mrs. Shuldam
H. Shaw, Dr. J. C. Pollen, C. I. E.. Mr. H. E. A.
Cotton, L. C. C, Mr. and Mrs. N. C. Sen, Mr. and
Mrs. J. H. Polak, Mr. A. Kallenbach, Lt. Col. Kanta
Prasad I. M. S. (Retired) Miss F. Witerbottom,
Dr. S. D. Bhabha, Dr. Jivraj N. Mehta, Mr. and
Mrs. Basheshar Singh, Mr. and Mrs. Cheesman,
Mr. F. N. Ilavna, Mr. E. Dalgado, Mr. Sorabji
Shapurji and Mr. M. M. Gandevia.
Letters of apology for absence were announced
from Sir William Wedderburn, Princess of Sophia
Duleep Singh, the raimbers of the Indian Ambu-
243
M. K. Gandhi
lance corps at Netley, and Lt. Colonel. R. Bakeri.
I. M. S. (commanding the corps), Mirza Abbaa Baig
Mr. and Mrs. Ratan J. Tata, Mr. C. E. Mallet, and
Lt. Colonel and Mrs. Warliker.
SIR HENRY COTTON
Sir. Henry Cotton said that they had met that
afternoon to give a cordial send-off to one who had
earned by the labours and self-sacrifice over a very
long period of years the esteem of every Englishinan*
It only remained for them lo wish Mr. Gandhi a
favourable journey to his native land and to
congratulate him upon the triumphs he had achieved.
Nor did they forget Mrs. Gandhi — hear, hear — who-
had also suffered in the good cause. Those labours
and those sacrifices were o\/er. Mr. Gandhi had
practically won the battle he had baen fightiaij and
was returning to India to resume as they all hoped,
the practice of his profession under happier auspices
than it had been his fate to enjoy in South Africa,
and to meet the thousands of his countrymen by
whom his name would never be forgotten. (Cheers) ,
Mr. PARIKH
Mr. J. M. Parikh added a few words on behalf of
the Indians in London, both those who were perma-
nent residents there and the young students whose
stay was only brief. They thad all had the great
244
Appendix III. — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
'privilege of being closely associated with Mr. Gandhi
during the past few weeks, and were well aware of
-the good work he had accomplished. Mr. Gandhi
had not only thrown up a lucrative practice at the
bar in South Africa in order to champion the cause
of his countrymen, but together with his wife and
his four sons had suffered imprisonment on a matter
of principle. In London where he came in weak
health, he had at ouce grasped the significance of
the great crisis in which liberty and empire were
alike involved. He immediately offered his services,
and others had followed in his footsteps, with the
result that the Field imbalance corps had been
established. Whatever had been the difficulties
■encountered, the success of the movement could be
seen at Netley and Brighton, where youngmen of
good family were cheerfully and willingly acting as
hospital orderlies. (Hear, Hear).
Mr. CHARLES ROBERTS. M.P.
Mr. Charles Roberts, M.P., said that the present
was not the time for speeches, but they had met that
afternoon to give expression in the most informal
way to their personal feelings of good- will towards
Mr. Gandhi and he was glad to contribute his share.
The work which Mr. Gandhi had at heart was
mainly accomplished as far as South Africa was
concerned, although it might remain to be more
245
M. K. Gandhi
completely fulfilled in other parts of the empire. He
should like to take the opportunity to thank Mr.
Gandhi for the help he had rendered to the
Ambulance movement, and to testify to the really
excellent work which Indians were doing in connec-
tion with it. (Hear Hear). It might be that in
leaving England Mr. Gandhi felt to some extent
disappointed of the hope of giving that help which
he had so willingly afforded in South Africa ; but
the prospect lay before him of more good work in
India (Hear, Hear).
Mrs. olive SCHREINER
Mrs. Olive Schreiner expressed the great admira-
tion which she felt for Mr. Gandhi. She looks upon
him not only as the most able and self-sacrifi-
cing of leaders but also one of the teachers of the age
who had given a high moral example to the world, and
had striven for political justice and freedom, not by
blood and violence but by the might force of passive
resistance to what he believed to be Justice.
Mr. GANDHI'S REPLY
Mr. Gandhi, who was received with cheers, said
that his wife and himself were returning to the
motherland with their work unaccomplished and with
broken health, but be wished nevertheless, to use the
language of hope. When the ^ Ambulance corps was-
246
Appendix IIL — Appreciations of Mr. Gandhi
formed, it had been a matter of great joy to him that
so many students and others came forward willingly
and offered their services. Men such as Colonel Kanta
prasad and Mr. Turkhud and Mr. Parikh were none of
them expected to do the service of hospital orderlies
at Netley, but nevertheless they had cheerfully done
it. Indians had shown themselves thereby capable
of doing their duty, if they received the recognition of
their rights and privilegs. The whole idea of the corps
arose because he felt that there should be some outlet
for the anxiety of the Indians to help in the crisis which
had come upon the Empire. (Hear, hear). He had
himself pleaded hard with Mr. Roberts that some-
place should be found for him ; but his health had
not permitted and the doctors had been obdurate. He
had not resigned from the corps. If in his own
motherland he should be restored to strength, and
hostilities were still continuing, he intended to come
back, directly the summons reached him. (Cheers) .
As for his work in South Africa, they had been
purely a matter of duty and carried no merit with it
and his only aspiration on his return to his mother-
land was to do his duty as he found it day by day.
He had been practically an exile for 25 years and
his friend and master Mr. Gokhale had warned him
not to speak of Indian questions, as India was a
foreign land to him. (Laughter) But the India of
his imagination was in India unrivalled in the world
247
M. K. Gandhi
and India where the most spiritual treasures were to
be found, and it was his dream and hope that the
connection between .India and England might be
a. source of spiritual comfort and uplifting to
the whole world. He could not conclude with-
out expressing his warmest appreciation of the
great kindness which the Lady Cecilia Roberts
had shown to his wife and himself in their illness.
They had landed in England as strangers but they
had speedily fallen among friends. There must be
something good in the connection between India and
England if it produces such unsolicitude and generous
liindness from Englishmen and women to Indians.
248
LORD HARDINGE.
The Viceroy who won all hearts in India by liis
daring and patriotic Speech demanding
Commission of inquiry
in South Africa.
249
APPENDIX IV
LORD HARDINGE ON THE SOUTH
AFRICAN SITUATION
In reply to the address presented by the Madras
Mahajana Sabha on Monday the 2Mh November
1913, His Excellency the Viceroy spoke as follows : —
The position of Indians in South Africa has for
some years past received the most anxious considera-
tion of the Government of India, and, as the Maha-
jana Sabha acknowledge, they are doing alljthat lies
in their power to ensure fair treatment for Indians
residing within the Union.
The Act, of which you complain, has in practice
the effect of putting a stop to Asiatic emigration to
South Africa, though it does not discriminate in so
many words against Asiatics. We have, however,
succeeded in securing the privilege of entry for a
limited number of educated Indians annually. We
have also made special endeavours to secure as
favourable terms as possible for Indians already resi-
dent in the Union, and our efforts have resulted in
the inclusion of provisions for the right of appeal to
the Courts on points of law, and of a definition of
domicile, in accordj^ace with which the position of
249
M. K. Gandhi
Indians, who entered the Union otherwise than
under indenture, has been satisfactorily laid down.
We are at the present moment in communication
with the Secretary of State regarding other restric-
tions contained in the Act to which we take excep-
tion and we trust that our representations may not
be without result.
You have urged in your address that retaliatory
measures should be taken by the Government of India
but you have not attempted to state the particular
measures which in your opinion should be adopted.
As you are aware we forbade indentured emigration
to Natal in 1911 : and the fact that the Natal plan-
ters sent a delegate over to India, to beg for a re-
consideration of that measure shows how hardly it hit
them. But I am afraid it has had but little effect
upon South Africa as a whole, and it is unfortunately
not easy to find means by which India can make her
indignation seriously felt by those who hold the reins
of Government in that country.
Recently, your compatriats in South Africa have
taken matters into their own hands by organising,
■what is called passive resistance to laws which they
consider invidious and unjust — an opinion which we
who watch their struggles from afar cannot but
share.
They have violated as they intended to violate,
those laws, with full knowledge of the penalties in-
250
Lord Hardinge on the South African Situation
volved, and ready with all courage and patience to
endure those penalties. In all this they have the
sympathy of India— deep and burning — and not only
of India, but of all those who like myself, without
being Indians themselves, have feelings of sympathy
for the people of this country.
But the most recent developments have taken a
very serieus turn and we have seen the widest pub-
licity given to allegations that this movement of pas-
sive resistance has been dealt with by measures
which would not for a moment be tolerated in any
country that claims to call itself civilised.
These allegations have been met by a categorical
denial from the responsible Government of South
Africa, though even their denial contains admissions
which do not seem to me to indicate that the Union
Government have exercised a very wise discretion in
some of the steps which they have adopted. That is
the position at this moment, and I do feel that if the
South African Government desire to justify them-
selves in the eyes of India and the world only one
course is open to them and that is to appoint a strong
and impartial committee, upon which Indian interests
shall be fully represented, to conduct a thorough and
searching enquiry into the truth of these allegations ; .
and as the communique that das appeared in this
morning's papers will show you, I have not hesitated
to press that view upon the Secretary of State. Now
351
M. K. Gandhi
that, according to telegraphic accounts received in
this country from South Africa, such disorder as
arose has completely ceased, I trust that the Govern-
ment of the Union will fully realise the imperative
necessity of treating a loyal section of their fellow
subjects in a spirit of equity and in accordance with
their rights as free citizens of the British Empire,
You may rest assured that the Government of India
will not cease to urge these considerations upon His
Majesty's Government.
THE LORD BISHOP OF MADRAS ON THE
SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION
Under the auspices of the Indian South African
League, a public meeting was held on the I5th Decem-
ber \9\l in the Y.M.C.A. Auditorium to thank H.E. the
Viceroy for his sympathetic assurances about the
conditions of Indians in South Africa and to protest
af<ainst the composition of the Committee appointed
by the South African Union Government to go into
the question. The Rev. Lord Bishop of Madras, the
Chairman, said : —
Gentlemen, — The object of this meeting is: to
convey most respectfully our thanks to His Excel-
lency the Viceroy for his remarks on the South
African question during his recent visit to Madras,
and our hearty appreciation of the deep sympathy
which he has shown with the wfongs and suflferings
252
Lord Bishop of Madras on South African Situation
of the Indians in South Africa and the wise and
statesmanlike spirit in which he has dealt with this
most painful and difficult question. I will leave the
three speakers, who will respectively move, second
and support the resolution that will be submitted to
this meeting, to express your vie^s on this subject,
and also the gratitude which all classes of Indians
in Madras feel towards His Excellency for his
courageous and timely utterances. But before
calling upon them to speak, I should like to say a
few words as an Englishman and a Christian, I do
not propose to argue all over, again the Indian
question in South Africa except to emphasise once
more the fact that Indians are not now claiming the
free right of entry for the people of India to South
Africa or any other part of the British Empire.
What they do claim is that the Indians who have
been allowed to settle in South Africa and make
South Africa their home, the men and women by
whose labour and toil Natal has been saved from
ruin and made a prosperous colony, should be treated
with common justice and humanity. If you have
not done so already, I should advise you to procure
and read carefully a copy 5f Mr, Gokhale's speech
at Bombay on the 24th October last. It gives the
clearest and fullest statement of 'the history of this
struggle and of the Indian demands that I have read
anywhere. I have nothing to add to what Mr.
253
M. K. Gandhi
Gokbale has already said so eloquently and so feel-
ingly and yet with admirable self-restraint. But I
will say just a few words on some of the criticisms
which have been levelled against His Excellency the
Viceroy in England and in South Africa.
UNDIPLOMATIC
In the first place his speech has been condemned
as undiplomatic. Possibly it was undiplomatic. But
there is a time for all things. For many years the
Government of India have tried patiently to secure
justice for the Indians in South Africa by diplomatic
methods and they have failed. And now that matters
have been brought to a dangerous crisis and all
India is ablaze with a fiery indignation, time has
come to put aside the soft phrases of diplomacy, to
call a spade a spade and to tell .the politicians of
South Africa plainly how their action in this matter
is regarded in India. We are deeply grateful to His
Excellency that he has done this and has come
forward at a critical time as the spokesman and
representative of the Indian people.
Then, in the second place, His Excellency has
been criticised for having, encouraged the men who
are breaking the law. No sensible person would
ever say a word to encourage law-breaking without a
deep sense or responsibility. It is a platitude to say
that society is built up on respect for law and order.
But there is such a thing as tyranny masquerading
254
Lord Bishop of Madras on South African Situation
under the forms of law ; and when that is unhappily
the case, resistance to law becomes not a crime, but
a virtue. I shirnk from saying anything that may
even seem to encourage lawlessness; bat I think
that it is necessary to say quite plainly and openly
that the Indians in South Africa are now resisting
not law but tyranny. They have been very patient.
For twenty years or more they have pleaded for
justice, and it is only after exhausting every other
possible means of securing redress for their cruel
wrongs, that they have at last taken the step of
passive resistance to unjust laws. For the South
African Government, therefore, to appeal to the duty
of obedience to the law seems to me to ignore the
obvious fact that the just complaints of the Indians
for the last twenty years has been that the law has
been made an engine of tyranny and injustice. It is
all very well for the South African Government to
say, ' we cannot consider your grievances till you
cease your resistance to the law.' The Indians can
say with far more reason : ' we will cease our resis-
tance to your laws when you cease to make them
Instruments of oppression.' In saying this, I do not
for a moment condone any acts of unprovoked
violence that may have occurred on the part of the
Indians ; I must repeat with regard to these
outbreaks what I have already said elsewhere, that
the responsibility for»them must rest mainly upon
255
M. K. Gandhi
those who have provoked the conflict by injustice and-
cruelty.
1 have spoken so far as an Englishmen, taught
from my childhood to hate tyranny and to regard it
as a sacred duty to stand up for the oppressed and
persecuted, to whatever race or country they belong.
May 1 say just a very few words as a Christian..
I feel all the more indignant at the cruel injustice
inflicted on the Indians in South Africa just because
it is inflicted by men who profess to be disciples and
followers of Jesus Christ. Tyranny is hateful in
any case. It is doubly hateful when exercised by
Christians in direct defiance of their creed and in
flagrant opposition to the whole teaching and.
example of Him whom they acknowledge as their
Lord and their God. 1 frankly confess, though it
deeply grieves me to say it, that I see in Mr. Gandhi
the patient sufferer for the cause of righteousness
and mercy, a truer representative of the Crucified
Saviour than the men who have thrown him into
prison and yet call themselves by the name of
Christ.
256
251
APPENDIX V
TOLSTOY ON PASSIVE RESISTANCE
The following is a translation of the letter of
Count Tolstoy to Mr. Gandhi : —
Kotchety, Russia, Sept. 7, 1910.
I received your journal, and was pleased to learn
all contained therein concerning the passive resisters.
And I felt like telling you all the thoughts which that
reading called up in me.
The longer I live, and especially now, when I
vividly feel the nearness of death, I want to tell
others what I feel so particularly, clearly and what to
my mind is of great importance — namely, that which
is called passive resistance, but which is in reality
nothing else than the teaching of love uncorrupted
by false interpretation?. That love — i.e., the striving
for the union of human souls and the activity derived
from this striving — is the highest and only law of
human life, and in the depth of his soul every human
being (as we most clearly see in children) feels and
knows this ; he knows this until he is entangled by the
false teachings of the world. This law was proclaim-
ed by all — by the Indian as by the Chinese, Hebrew,
257
17
M. K' Gandhi
Greek and Roman sages of the world. I think this
law was most clearly expressed by Christ, who
plainly said that " in this only is all the law and the
prophets." But besides this, foreseeing the corrup-
tion to which this law is and may be subject, be
straightway pointed out the danger of its corruption,
which is natural to people who live in worldly
interests, the >danger, namely, which justifies the
defence of these interests (by the use of force, or,
as he said, * • with blows to answer blows, by
force to take back things usurped," etc. He knew,
as every sensible man must know, that the use
of force is incompatible with love as the fundamental
law of life, that as soon as violence is permitted, in
whichever case it may be, the insufficieacy of the
law of love is acknowledged, and by this the very
law is denied. The whole Christian civilisation,
so brilliant oui'wardly, grew upon this self-evident
and strange misunderstanding and contradiction'
sometimes conscious, but mostly unconscious.
In reality, as soon as force was admitted into lova
there was no more, and there could be no love as the
law of life, and as there was no law of love, there
was no law at all, except violence — tuj., the power of
the strongest. So lived Christian humanity for
nineteen centuries. It is true that in all times
people were guided by violence in arranging their
lives. The di£fereace between ftie Christian natioaj
258 -^
Appendix V .—Tolstoy on Passive Resistance
and all other nations is only that in the Christian
world the law of love was expressed clearly and
definitely, whereas it was not so expressed in any
other religious teaching, and that the people of the
Christian world have solemnly accepted this law,
whilst at the same time they have permitted violence,
and built their lives on violence, and that is why the
whole life of the Christian peoples is a continuous
contradiction between that which they profess and
the principles on which they order their lives — a
contradiction between love accepted as the law
of life and violence which is recognised and praised,
acknowledged even as a necessity in different phases
of life, such as the power of rulers, courts and
armies. This contradiction always grew with the
development of the people of the Christian world,
and lately it reached the highest stage. The question
now evidently stands thus : either to admit that
we do not recognise any religio-moral teaching, and
we guide ourselves in arranging our lives only by
power of the stronger, or that all* our compulsory
taxes, court and police establishments, but mainly
our armies, must be abolished.
This year, in Spring, at a Scripture examination in
a girls* high school at Moscow, the teacher and the
bishop present asked the girls questions on the
Commandments, and especially on the sixth. After
a correct answer, th6 bishop generally pat another
259
M. K. Gandhi
question, whether murder was always in all cases
forbidden by God's law, and the unhappy young
ladies were forced by previous instruction to answer,
" Not always "—that murder was permitted in war
and in execution of criminals. Still, when one
of these unfortunate young ladies (what I am telling
is njt an invention, but a fact told me by an
eye-witnass), after her first answer, was asked the
ySual question, if killing were always sinful, she.
agitated and blushing, decisi vely answered, "x^lways,"
and to all the usual sophisms of the bishop she
answered with decided conviction, that killing always
was forbidden in the Old Testament and forbidden
by Christ, not only killing, bat even every wrong
against a brother. Notwithstanding all his grandeur
and art of speech, the bishop became silent and the
girl remained victorious.
Yes, we can talk in our newspapers of the progress
of aviation, of complicated diplomatic relations,
of different clubs and conventions, of unions of
different kinds, of so-called productions of art,
and keep silent about wnat that young lady said .
But it cannot be passed over in silence, because
it is felt, more or less dimly, but always felt
by every man in the Christian world. Socialism
Communism, Anarchism, Sanation Army, mcreasing
crime, unemployment, the growing insane luxury
of the rich and misery of the jfoor, the alarmingly
260
\Appendix V. — Tolstoy on Passive Resistance
increasing number of suicides — all these are the
signs of that internal contradiction which must
be solved and cannot remain unsolved. And of
course solved in the sense of acknowledging the
law of love and denying violence, ^ni so your activity
in the Transvaal, as it seems to us, at the end of the
world, is the most essential work, the most important
of all the work now being done in the world, and in
which not only the nations of the Christian, but of
all the world, will unavoidably take part.
I think that you will be pleased to know that here
in Russia this activity is also fast developing in the
way of refusals to serve in the Army, the number of
which increases from year to year. However insig-
nificant is the number of our people whotare passive
resisters in Russia who refuse to serve in the Army,
these and the others can boldly say that God is with
them. And God is more powerful than man.
In acknowledging Christianity even in that corrupt
form in which it is professed amongst the Christian
nations, and at the same time in acknowledging the
necessity of armies and armament for killing on the
greatest scale in wars, there is such a clear clamouring
contradiction, that it must sooner or later, possibly
very soon, inevitably reveal itself and annihilate
either the professing of the Christian religion, which
is indispensable in keeping up these forces, or the
existence of armies and all the violence kept up by
261
M. K. Gandhi
them, which is not less necessary for power. This-
contradiction is felt by all government, by yoar
British as well as by our Russian Government, and
out of a general feeling of self-preservation the perse-
cution by them (as seen in Russia and in the journal
sent by you) against such anti-government activity
as those above-mentioned, is carried on with more
energy than against any other form of opposition.
The governments know where their chief danger lies,
and they vigilantly guard in this question, not only
their interests, but the question : " To be or not to
be?" — Yours very faithfully,
LEO TOLSTOY.
[Translated from the original Russian by Pauline
Padlashuk. — Johannesburg, November 15, 1910.]
Indian Opinion.
262
APPENDIX VI
INDIGO LABOUR IN BEHAR
MR. GANDHI AT MOTIHARI
Magistrates Order
Mr. Gandhi left Muzaffarpur for Motihari by the
mid-day train on the I5th April 1917. Next day he
was served with a notice under Sec. 144 Cr. P. Code,
of which the following is a copy.
Mr. M. K, Gandhi, at present in Motihari.
Whereas it has been made to appear to me from
the letter of the commissioner of the Division copy
of which is attached to this order, that your presence
in any part of the district will endanger the public
peace, and may lead to serious disturbance which
may be accompanied by loss of life, and whereas
urgency is of the utmost importance.
Now, therefore, I do hereby order you to abstain
from remaining in this district, which you are
required to leave by the next available train.
(Sd.) W. B. HEYCOCK.
16th April, 1917. District Magistrate,
Champaran.
263
M. K. Gandhi
What the Commissioner Thought
Copy of the letter from the Com-nissioner, Tirhat
Division, to the District Magistrate of Champaran,
dated Muzaflarpur, the 13th April, 1917 :
Sir.
Mr. M. K. Gandhi has come here in response to
what he describes as an insistent public demand, to
inquire into the conditions under which Indians
work, on indigo plantations, and desires the help of
the local administration. He came to see me this
morning ; and I explained that relations between the
planters and raiyats had engaged the attention of the
administration since the sixties, and that we were
particularly concerned with a phase of the problem
in Champ iran now ; but it was doubtful whether the
intervention of a stranger in the middle of our
treatment of the case would not prove an embarrass^
ment. I indicated the potentialities of disturbance
in Champaran, asked for credentials to show an
insistent public demand for his enquiry, and said
that the matter would probably need reference
to Government.
I expect that Mr. Gandhi will communicate with
me again before he proceeds to Champaran. but
have been informed since our interview that his
object is likely to be agitation, rather than a genuine
search for knowledge, and it is possible that he may
264
Appendix VI. — Indigo Labour in Behar
proceed without further reference. I consider that
there is a danger of disturbance to the public
tranquillity, should he visit your district; and I
have the honour to request you to direct him by
an order under Sec. 144, Cr. P. C, to leave at once,
if he should appear.
I have the honour to be, etc.,
(Sd.) L. F. MORSHEAD.
Commissioner of Tirhut
Division,
Mr. Gandhi's Reply
Mr. Gandhi's reply to the District Magistrate,
Motihari :
Sir, — With reference to the order under Sec. 144,
Cr. P. C, just served upon me, I beg to state that I
am sorry that you have felt called upon to issue it ;
and I am sorry too that the Commissioner of
the Division has totally misinterpreted my position.
Out of a Sense of public responsibility, I feel it to be
my duty to say that I am unable to leave this
district, but if it so pleases the authorities, I shall
submit to the order by suffering the penally of
disobedience.
I most emphatically repudiate the Commissioner's
sucgestion that '• my object is likely to be
agitation." My desire is purely and simply for
265
M. K. Gandhi
" a genuine search for knowledge " and this I shall
continue to satisfy so long as I am left free.
I have, etc.,
16th April, 1917. (Sd.) M. K. GANDHI.
In Court
Mr. Gandhi appeared before the Deputy Magis-
trate on Wednesday, the 18th instant. He read the
Statement printed below, and being asked to plead
and finding that the case was likely to be unneces-
sarily prolonged, pleaded guilty. The Magistrate
would not award the penalty but postponed judgment
till 3 P. M. Meanwhile, he was asked to see the
Superintendent and then the District Magistrate.
The result was that he agreed not to go out to the
villages pending instructions from the Government
as to their view of his mission. The case was then
postponed up to Saturday, April 21.
Mr. Gandhi's Statement
The following is the text of Mr.Gaudhts State-
ment before the Court : 4
With the permission of the Court. I would like to
make a brief statement showing why I have taken
the very serious step of seemingly disobeying the
order made under Sec. 144 of the Cr. P. C. In my
humble opinion, it is a question of difiFerence of
opinion, between the local administration and my-
self. I have entered the country with motives of
rendering humanitarian and national service. I have
266
Appendix VI. — Indigo Labour in Behar
done so in response to a pressing invitation to come
and help the raiyats, who urge they are not being
fairly treated by the indigo planters. I could not ren-
der any help without studying the problem. I have
therefore, come to study it with the assistance, if
possible of the administration and the planters. I have
no other motive, and 1 cannot believe that my
coming here can in any way disturb public peace or
cause loss of life. I claim to have considerable
experience in such matters. The administration,
however, have thought differently. 1 fully appreciate
their difficulty, and I admit too, that they can only
proceed upon information they receive. As a law-
abiding citizen, my first instinct would be as it was
to obey the order served upon me. I could not do
so without doing violence to my sense of duty
to those for whom I came. I feel that I could just
now serve them only by remaining in their midst, I
could not, therefore, voluntarily retire. Amid this
conflict of duty, I could only throw the responsibility
of removing me from them on the administration. I
am fully conscious of the fact that a person, holding
in the public life of India a position such as I do, has
to be most careful in setting examples. It is my
firm belief that, in the complex constitution under
which we are living, the safe and honourabl6 course
for a self respecting man is, in the circumstances
such as that face me, to do what I have decided to
267
M. K. Gandhi
do, that is, to submit without protest to the penally
of disobedience. I have ventured to make this
statement not in any way in extenuation of the
penalty to be awxrded against me, but to show that
I have disregarded the order served upon me,
not for want of respect for lawful authority, but in
obedience to the higher law of our being — the voice
of conscience. — Leader.
Government Committee of Enquiry
Mr. M. K. Gandhi to Sit as Member
Bankipore, June 1917 : —
The Local Government have to-day issued a
resolution regarding the appintment of a committee
to enquire into the relations between landlord and
tenant in the Champaran district, including all
disputes arising out of the manufacture and cultivation
of indigo. The committee, as was stated in a previou^
message, is fully representative, appointed with the
approval of the Government of India and consists of
the following : — President : Mr. F. G. Sly, Commis"
sioner. Central Provinces; Members: Mr. L. G.
Adami, Legal Remembrancer, Behar ai-id Orissa, the
Hon. Raja Harihar Prashad Narayan Singh, a land-
lord, the Hon. Mr. D. J. Reicl a member of the
planting community, Mr. G. Rainy, Deputy Secretary,
Finance Department, Government of India, who had
been in the Champaran District formerly and Mr.
M. K. Gandhi, Secretary ; Mr. E. L. Tanner, Settle-
268
Appendix VI. — Indigo Labour in Behar
ment Officer, South Bihar. Mr. Tanner, it may be
stated, was the Sub-Divisional Officer of Bettiah,
when indigo riots broke out in that sub-division in
1908.
The committee's duty will also be to examine the
evidence on those subjects already available, supple-
menting it by such further enquiry, local and other*
wise, as they may consider desirable, and to report
their conclusions to the Government, stating the
measures they recommend in order to remove any
abuse or grievances, which they may find to exi^^t
The Lieut-Governor in Council has left a free hand
to the Committee as to the procedure they will adopt
in arriving at the facts. The committee will assem-
ble about the 15th July, and will, it is hoped, complete
their labours within three months.
Government Resolutiom
The resolution, appointing this Committee, says : —
On various occasions during the past fifty years, the
relations of landlords and tenants and the circums-
tances, attending the growing of indigo in the Cham-
paran District, have been the cause of considerable
anxiety. The conditions under which indigo was
cultivated when the industry was flourishing, required
readjustment when it declined simultaneously, with a
general rise in the prices of food grains, and it was
partly on this account and partly owing to other
local causes that disturbances broke out in certain
269
M. K. Gandhi
indigo concerns in 1908. Mr. Gourlay was deputed
by the Government of Bengal to investigate the
causes of the disturbances, and his report and recom-
mendations were considered at a series of conferences
presided over by Sir Edward Baker, and attended by
the local officers of the Government and representa-
tives of the Behar Planters' Association. As a result of
tbese discussions, revised conditions for the cultiva'-
tion of indigo, calculated to remove the grievances of
the raiyats, were accepted by the Behar Planters
Association. In 1912 fresh agitation arose connected
not so much with the conditions under which indigo
was grown as with the action of certain factories,
v/hich were reducing their indigo manufacture, and
taking agreements from their tenants for the pay-
ment, in lieu of indigo cultivation, of a lump sum in
temporarily leased villages or of an increase of rent
In villages under permanent lease. Numerous peti-
tions on th\s subject were presented from time to time
to the local officers and to Government, and petitions
were at the same time field by raiyats of the villages
in the north of the Bettiah subdivision, in which
indigo had never been grown, complaining of the levy
of abab or illegal additions to rent by their lease-
holders, both Indian and European. The issues
raised by all these petitions related primarily to rent
and tenancy conditions, and as the revision settlement
of the district was about to be. undertaken, in the
270
Appendix VL — Indigo Labour in Behar
course of which Ue relations existing between land-
lords and tenaniswould come under detailed exami.
nation, it was thmght advisable to await the report
of the SettlementDfficers before passing tinal orders
on the petitions. The revision settlement was started
in the cold weatlir of 1913. On the 7th April 1915
a resolution waj moved in the Local Legislative
Council asking or the appointment of a mixed
committee of of*als and non-officials to enquire into
the complaints (the raiyat and to suggest remedies.
It was negativi by a large majority including 12
out of the 16 n^official members of Council present
on the groua that the appointment of such a
committee atlJat stage was unnecessary, as the
settlement ofRs were engaged in the collection of
all the materifequired for the decision of the ques'
tions at issue,»d an additional enquiry of the nature
proposed wd merely have the effect of further
exaggeratin^e relations of landlord and tenant,
which were 'ady feeling the strain of the settle*
ment operas. The settlement operations have
now been cpleted in the northern portion of the
district, ar^re approaching completion in the
remainder] a mass of evidence regarding agricul-
tural conds and the relations between landlords
and tenants been collected. A preliminary report
on thecoMs of the tenants in the leased villages
Jn the nof the Bettiah sub-division, in which no
271
M. K. Gandhi .1
indigo is grown, has been receiveJJand action has
already been taken to prohibit tie levy of ille'^al-
cesses, and, in the case of the Betfah Raj, to review
the terms of the leases on whict the villages con-
cerned are held. As regards the :omplaints of the
raiyats in other parts of the distrit, the final report
of the Settlement Officer has not-et been received,
but recent events have again broug into prominence
the whole question of the relations etween landlords
and tenants and in particular th«aking of agree-
ments from the raiyats for conansation or for
enhanced rent in return for thebandonment of
indigo cultivation. In these cirostances and in
deference to representations wh have been
received from various quarters that ' time has come
when an enquiry by a joint body of iciais and non-
ofificials might materially assist the L<1 Government
in coming to a decision on the probis, which have
arisen, the Lieut.-Governor in Coul has decided,
without waiting for the final repoof the Settle-
ment operations, to refer the quest at issue to a
committee of enquiry on which all in?ts concerned
will be represented.
272
INDEX.
A PAGE
A'Jt 22 of 1914, paasing of, Ixxv
Acoivities, modern, ... 69
Adami, L. G.— ... 268
AdnUeration ... 139
Advancement, material, ... 130
Advice to Sr.udents 53 — .59
Advice Gandhi's farewell —
to 8. Africa 35—36
Advice to Merchants 184 — 186
Aga Khan, H. H. 198
Agitation, Constitutional, xxiv
" Ahimsa " ... 127
a key note of, ... xi
our religion ... 56
vow of, 96-97
— - Gandhi on, -^6— 221
Self-suffering ... 216
truth apd fearlessness. 218
the greatest courage. 219
and Passive Resirters. 219
a panacea ... 221
Ahmedabad ... 149
American Wealth ... 137
Ampthill. Lord xxxvii ; 29,
31, 196. 209, lix
activities of, ... 201
on 3£ tax ... Iviii
on Mr. Gandhi. 226-226
Anarchism, views on, 85, 360
Ancestary, greatness of
Gandhi's vhi — x
Andrews, Mr. 33, 86, 209
XXV, xxviii, 241
Anti-Indian Measure ... 201
Appreciations of Mr. Gan-
dhi : 225—248
Armaments and absence of
morality ... 139
Arya Samaj ... 178
" Ashrama" Gandhi's In-
stitution ... 93
objects and rulea of ... »
93
PAGE
Arya. work of and help to 157
Asiatic Law, Amendment
Act
Immigration
Act of 1907
to repeal
doomed
Asiatics, convicts
burden on
Aspirations, new.
Attack on Gandhi
Australia
Authorities, warning the,
B
... 198
198, 249
19, 200, 214
199, 204, 215
... 203
xxxiv
... 191
... 104
... 199
... 160
zliz
•life in,
18
-103
104, 105
Badat ... Ixxi
Bagavat Geeta ... 117
on masses ... 124
influence on Gandhi... xiv
Balfour — ... Ixxi
Baker, Sir E ... 270
' Bande Mataram', nation-
al Song ... 54
Bangalore Puolic, Reply
to the, 68—70
Bannerman, Campbell ... 88
Bapi.e. major xxviii
Basu. B. N. on Gandhi ... 239
Benares, Condition of, 7,111,113
Benares Incident ... 93
reply to. 79—85
Eeutfit, a mutual, ... JO
Besaut (Mrs.) attack on
Gandhi ... 79
her interruption ... 8&
— — unveiling Gandhi's por-
trait 226—228
Bhownagree, Sir M. xxxvii, 196
Bbyat Ixxi.Ixxiii
Bible, as scripture ... 117
Bijapurkar. Prof., ... 178
Bill A ; to enfL-aachiso x ii, 207
Births, premature, ... 135
274
INDEX.
PAGE
Bishop of Madras on S.
African questiou 252 — 256
Bloodshed ... 15
Boer Patriotism, cause of... 189
Boer regime ... 15
Boet war, help of Gandhi
in, xxvii, xsviii
Bomb-shell ... 194
Botha, General xxxvi,27, xi, 241
Brahmacharya ... 145
Brahmins ; and Pancha-
mas 6C — Gl
founders of Edu-
cation ... 145
Bribery ... 139
Bribe for Ry. journey ... 170
Briscoe, Dr. ... Ixiv
Britain, intrinsic morality
of, ... 140
British citizenship, the
duties of, 14 — 16
Briiish constitution, under-
mining, ... 29
preserving, 30, 315
British Indian Associa-
tion ... 201
British Empire, loyalty
to, ... 52
British vs. Indian, rule ... 3
British Force, modern civi-
lization ... 76
Buddha ... 136
vs. Gaadhi ... ii
Cachalia, A. M. 201, Ixxi
— — to the Strikers Ixxiii
Calamity, Gandhi's great... xv
Canada ... 160
Carnegie ... 32
Capetown ... 33
Gartwright, Albert, aa me-
diator xxxix, 198, 200
PAGE
Capetown ... I{3
Caste, a great power ... 7^
system ... 11^
Celibacy, vow of 97, Ixxxvii
Gbaddrika Prasad, Pandii. 130
Chaitanya,
vs. Gandhi —
Champaran
Champaran, Gandhi's work
in Ixxxvi ; 265,
— — incident
Govt, resolution cu
enquiry Ixxxv, 269
Chamberlain, Joseph xxix. 192,
199
Chamney 23
Character, building
development of,
.... sheer force of,
Charleston
a camp at,
women and children at Ixiv
Childhood of Gandhi ... x
Chhaganlai, Mr.
Child marriage, evils of, ...
Chotabhai case
Christianity, superfioial, ...
Christianity, Corrupt form
of
Christopher, Albert
Christians in 8. Africa ... :'^
Civic Freedom, Gandhi on,
221, 22:i
Civilisation, ancient, ... 69
~— of the White iu danger xv
evils of foreign, ... 146
Indian and material
forces
— — modern,
modern, crude
Kodern, a curse
opponent of modern, 61.55
result of western
modern, ... 12
Clothing, maobine-made,... 4
136
ii
148
268
Ixxiii
. 94
. 150
. viii
Ixiii
Ixiv
41
179
•205
138
261
Ixii
146
2
138
76
INDEX.
275
PAGE
Collins, Mr. ... 148
Color and raoe, a factor for
struggle ... xis
Commiitee iu Loudon xs
Committee, to enquire (8.
African trouble)
Compromise
Condiments, exoicing,
■CoQdition, material,
Conference, Inter-depart-
meaital,
in Pretoria, abortive.
Conflict, prolonged, ...8197
Congress Committee. All
India ... 82
Consoienoe, Gandbi wins... xiii
Control of Palates 97-99, xxxvii
Controversies, bitter, ... 201
Conviction, Gandhi's strong 213
■Co-operation, mutual,
a moral movement
and ryots
in Cbamparau
in Abmedabad
loan at fair rates in,
moralities of,
the moral basis of, 147,158
without character ... 151
"Co-operation of Soouo-
drels."
Co-operative movement,
blessing
vs. moral success
Coronation, King's
Country's greatness,
future of,
Courage in 8ooial Hervioe
Courage, raagnifioient,
proof of physical,
Credit, real sense of,
and rascal
Crisis in 8. Apica, dan-
gerous ... 25-1
Colored man, respect for laxxi
PAGE
Gougresa-mogleem-lea g u e,
Gandhis work in, ixxxvii
Cotton, Henry, on Gandhi. 244
xvii
Crew, Lord
... 30
Cruelty, tales of,
... xvii
251
CuUiv<ttiou and Gandhi
...xxxii
199
Culture, modern,
... 58
98
Cnrzon, Lord,
... 180
5
and tea-drinking
... 123
159
D
200
34
153
154
148
149
153
148
158
153
154
206
233
239
113
202
9K
151
152
Dalpatram, g 1 o r y f y i n g
mother tongue ... 177
Dauoing, Gandhi in, ... xiii
Dayauaud ... 136
gioryfying mother
tongoe ... 177
Death-Struggle ... 16
Decision, a favorable, ... 193
Delgoa Bay, incident at
xlv, 201, 204, Ixxx
Deportation, power of. xl*'. 200
Deputations, under Gandhi
xxxvi, xliii, 196, 203
preventing ... 202
Despatch of 1910 xlvi, 204
Devdhar ... 148
Dharbanga, Mrb-iraja of ... 79
Disabilities of Indian
labour xix, Ixxxii
Dii'truat and contempt for
Indians ... 211
Divorce Courts, lesson of ... 199
Doke. Rev Mr. xl. 225
Mr, and Mrs. ... 24
Draft Ordinance ... 194
Clauses of ... 195
Act of Union . ... 202
Drawers of water ... 163
Dundee Ixii
Durban ... 33
rations from, Ixiv
conference at, ... Ixi
'27G
INDEX.
PAGE
Duty, our religion ... 52
— — tn diachiirge the new. 27
E
Earning by fait means ... 165
Ijarth-motiopoly (instinct
of) A factor for struggle... xx
East and West, compared. 2—3
barrier between ... 13
Eponomicb, a factor for
siruggie ... XX
Economic Progress, mean-
ing or, 130, 136
E c o n o m i c vs. Mo r a 1
I'rogresa 128—141
Education, and Brahmins. 145
aim of, ... 143
true, ... 54
• ancient system of, ... 144
Ancient and modorn,
142— 14G
at School 142, 180
175
17'J
144
145
122
142
102
edifice of
evils of English,
Hisbcr.
on brahmacharyu ..
Proper,
Svbtcm of modern, ..
thro' vernaculars
thro' foreign tongue...
120, Ixxxvii
real, — explained 144 — 145
Educated youths, weaning
the ... 156
Educational conf e r e n c e,
Gujanit ... 175
Egypt, moral fall of, ... 132
Emigration, evils of, ... 77
Indian ooloninl, 15y— 165
a new and indentured, 160
— — diRcussmg complete
removal of, 161—163
and IndustricBof India 162
Agents ... 165
J'^mq.ants (Indian) and
existing indentures ... 160
PAGE
Employer, colonial, ... 161
Energy, exciting. ... 98:
England, Gandhi's life in
xiii — XV
a Self- sustained
CL'untry ... 122.
power of ... 186
—■ — bar hold on India ... 4
interest of — in
Indian labour ... 202.
Eogli&h Educated India ... 187
"English gentleman "
Gandhi as a xiii
English (language)
humiliation to speak
"1. ... 81
and the vernaculars 62—63
Knowledge of, ... 75
Englishman and Indians.
relations of, ... 96-
Enihu.siasm, awakening of, 201
Estates, condition of labor
iu the, ... xvii
Esteem, a token of, ... ix
European friends, an ex-
hortation to, 34. 35
advice to, 41, 44
European ideas etc.. evils
of, ... 143.
European section, attitude
of. ... 193
mood of, ... 196
sympathy of some... 201
Ewbank. Mr," ... 147
Experience, Gandhi's first-
experience in 8. Africa
xxi, xxii
Expulsion, virtual, ... 195
P^actories, horrible rise of. 138
Faith ... 151
Gandhi's confession of. 2 — 8-
F.Htigled ways, Gandhi bids
adieu to , xiii-
INDEX.
277
PAGE
"Fatal fusility" of locomo-
tion ... 11
Fearlessness, ... 56
and truth exemplified
108— 1 00
in Social Service ... 108
necessity of, ... 10
vs. pomp of power ... 140
vow of, ... 101
Fiji, oondition in, 86, 160
Financial help ... 201
Fisher ... 1x1
Folk, simple-minded ... 48
Force, body vs soul 10, 11
brute, ... 15
soul or love, ... 18
the might of religions. 49
Houl-against physical, 50
Forefathers, passive resis-
tors ... 1
Foreign goods, forswearing, 124
duty on, ... 124
Fraedom, how to obtain, G, Ixxv
Friendliness, new spirit of. 209
Future, the ... 6
Future Work, outline of,
215, 216
Gajjar, Prof. ... 178
Gambling 139, 154
■Gandhi and the leaders 61, 62
Gandhi on Mr. Gokhale 71—74
Gandhi, some attributes to;
(] » a t»*an8figuered prese-
nce (2) the unveiling of
some sanctuary (3) some
romance of tlae soul (4)
Infinitely gentle (o) lighn
•^pi ritual ... v
<6) the elect of God (7) bis
name, a token ... vi
^8) a saint and an asaetio, •
(9/ iha moral force ... vii
PAGE
MO) Self-leas leader ... vii
(11) the Mazzini ... 240
(12) a Hindu idol ... 231
(13| a Mahatma ... i
fl4) an apostle of P. Resis-
tance ... ii
(15) inexorable idealist ... ii
(16) moral giant (17) a
spiritual hero (18) a
peerless soldeer of God Ixxxi
Gandhi, a soepiio ... xi
for the bar ... xii
treatment got in S.
Africa ... xxi
as a shepherd ...xxiv
a volunteer in Boer
war xxviii
to exclude, ... xxx
appreciations ot, 235 — 248
cultivates xxxii
gives up luxury xxxiii
Imprisoned
xxxix, xlii, Ixxii
received blows ... xi
murderous attack on. 190
the highest ideal of a
Sanyasi . !i27
a.11 ideal Indian ... 227
Reception to, 244—248
his four sons ... 245
" frugal meals of ... 231
his work in Gougress
and Moslem league Ixxxvii
a rabid attack on, Ixxxvi
his work m Cham-
paran Ixxxvi
fiery champion of 3rd
olas paHsages iXXXv
nursing the Sick Ixiii
arrested ixvi
re-arrcsted IXiX
— — reli3a8ed on bail liX
phynioal condition of
— during March IXX
— — again arrested IXX
278
INDEX.
PAGE
Gftodhi afte?- release on baillXiX
thepriuoipal P. Reeis.
ter ... IXX
at Mothihari ... 263
Gandhi's life and career.
V — Ixxxviii
ancestor's greatness viii— x
Grandfather ... viii
Mother's tuition ...x,xii
humility Ixxxiv
departure to India Ixxxlii
— — record of S. African
Struggle Ixxx — Ixxxi
address at the trial lxxi«r
advice to the Strikers
lxx:ii
Telegram to the min-
ister of the Interior
Ixvii — Ixviii
letter — Iviii — J;x
Mother's death ... xv
— - life in England as
student. xiii — xv
— — activities in 8. Africa. xxiv
reply 246-248
Sen.se of Public res-
pousibiliiy ... 265
huuii*nifcarian and
natural Service ... 266
Portrait unveiled ... 236
trial in landing ...xxvt
Work during plague.. .xxxi
• Appeal. xxxvii
Work in England ... xliii
word, influence of. xxxviii
Gnndhi, Mrs; Greatness of. 223,
230, 231—233
meaning Sati ... 33o
ideal Comrade ... 232
ideal wifehood ... 240
Germany, power of, ... ISG
Gladstone, Lord ... lix
on Gandhi 238—289
Gokhale. Mr, 35. 6R, 86, 203,
247, lix, Ixj
L'AQE
Gckhnle in 8. Africa xlvii, Ivi
Mr. Gandhi on. 71 — 74
saintly politician ... 47
Gandhi's master ... 58
Rajya Guru. 46, 71
— — Mtbsage of ... 66
hi= i n 6 p i r a t i 0 n to
Gandhi ... 72
political Guru ... 94
on Gandhi 2 4—237
his word made good Ixxv
Gold Law 32, Ixxxii
Good will, mutual ... 34
Gordon. General ... 219
Green Mr. ... 159
GrindJe, Mr. ... 159
Guiana, British ... 160
Gujnrat Educational
Conferance. 175—183
Gurukul ... 178
H
Hall of Death ... 3
Hamilton, Sir D, on oo ope-
ration. 150—151
Hand-loom (Industry),
condition of, ... 122
disappearance of, ... 75-
reform for, ... 156
Haque, A.K, Fazul on
Gandhi ... 2.37
Harbat Bingh. 26,50 209
a Stalwart ... Ixxx
Hardinge Lord. 27. 87, 509
on S. African ques-
tion 249—252
criticisms on .. 254
appoints a eommittee
of enquiry on 8. African
trouble Ixx — vii
noble Viceroy ... 240^
Helplessness ... 144
Heroic Past Ixzix
INDEX.
279
PAGE
Hero's Will and heart
of a child ... vii
flindi, H3 medium of lus-
truciion. 178,183
Hinduism; caste, the secret
of ... 75
Historic day, a Ixix
History of India, discortion
of. ■ ... 143
Hodge Mr. ... 149
Holv Places, objects of ... 12
Ho&'ken, Mr. 25, 201
Hosken Committee.
services of. xliv, 201
Hospitals, evils of ... 4
Humiliation, bitter cup of. xxi
Hunter, William Wilson. 87,131
Husbandman, the' sal-
vation ... 5
I
Ideals of Gandhi ... vii
Immigration, to prevent, xxxiv
restitution of, ... 193
unlawful character ... 194
bvil of btoppage of, Ixxxiii
Immigration Law. 31, 200
Position on passing, ... 198
racial bar in, ... 199
Immigration Bill, Union... 205
Immigration (Indentured)
prohibition of ... 206
Immigrants, Prohibited ... 199
Immigrants, Condition of, 78
proclaiming prohi-
bited Ixxiii
Imperial legislative Council
historic Session of, ... 203
a resolution in, ... xliv
Impression, indelible, ... xliv
'Incubus' Asiatic ... 195
Indentured System (or la-
bor) xvi, 86-93; 204
an abomiuatiou ... xvii
PAGK
I iden utedhcrrorsof, xvii— ix
degrading ... 92
Slavery 87, 165
hideousness of, ... 88
and Strike ... Iv
Chinese, ... 89
Chinese and Indian: —
Compared ... 89-
treatment in, ... 90
a lesson of, ... 91
in Natal ... 91
one evil of, ... 164
Indentured Emigration ... 160
Indentured Indians sus-
pend work ... tx
altered System of, ... 161
Prohibition of, ... 206-
a permanent feature. 213
an evil ... 213
Independence, vigorous ... 104
India, a great dependency. 70
the need of, 93—95
a land of religion ... 146
a republican Country. 119
English educated, ... 187
flowing of milk and
honey in, ... 121
Virtue in foreign lands
and in, ... 77
a place to perfect
passive Resister ... 21
Deputation to ... 203
importance of birth in. 49
large Leuus from —
to 5 Africa ... Ixiv
Indian and Chinese Com-
munities ... 200
Indian, an unclean thing, xx
Indian Colonial Emigra-
tion 159—165
Indian Immigrant, position
of, ... xvi
Indian leaders ... 197
Indian Committee, 8. Afri-
can, ... 196
280
INDEX.
PAGE
Indian Opinion, loss to ... xxx
quoted from 14—21,191
Indian Position ... 900
Indian Prote'^ta, ignoring. 197
Indian Peeling in S.
Africa, acute ... Iviii
Indian Nationalism, con-
tribution to, ixxxi
Indian Field Ambulanoe
Corps 241—243
Indian Railway Journev.
166—174
Indian Women, greatne.sa
of, ... )ii
Indians (in 8. Africa), as
wild beasts ... xxv
feeding during the
March ... Ixii
to political franchi-'se
ixxx'ii
position of , ... 200
advice to, 40 — 41
and their employprrt
37—44
to drive out, ... 195
treatment of , ... 21.3
Indians Relief Act passed
Ixxviii
India's Salvation ... 4
India's strength ... 185
ladigo labor in Behar &
Gandhi 263-272
IndeRo plantations, oonai-
tion of labor in, Ixxxv
ludrajit and Lakshmana. 108
luduatriefl aud Emigration 163
Industries (handloom) ... 75
Condition of, ... 122
Instructiou, burden of —
foreign ... 179
Vernaculars as a
raediH, of ... 187
losanitation ... 13t^
PAGE
Inter-Departmental Confe-
rence ... 159
Islington ... 159
J
Jail hardships ... 202
Jails, crammed with
Indians xxxix
hr>rrors of life in 8-
African ... 235
Jain hJanyasin influence of
a, ... xii
Jamaica ... 160
Japan, the new life of, ... 180
Japan's activitiep, cause of. 180
Jesus 118, 136, 256
quoted 133—135
the greatest Econo-
mist ... 133
Jeurisb Patriotism and
mother tongue ... 188
Johannesburg, love for 24 — 25,
Ixv
baoquet speech at 22—36
meeting in, 200,209
rations from, ... Ixii
Junagadh, Nawab of ... ix
K
Kabir ... 136
Kallenbaoh 24, Ixr ; 237
an inspiring lender ... Ixii
Karve, Prof. ... 178
Kanta Pranad ... 242
Killing, forbidden ... 260
Krishna (Divinei, moral
fall of — descendants of ... 139
Labour, cheap, ... xvi
Labourer. Indian ... 161
Laoorers fn Indigo Plan-
tation Ixxxv
Ladj 3niith ... Ixm
Lancashire ... 121
INDEX.
281
PAGE
7—8
.. 182
.. 177
.. 41
.. 194
.. 138
Language, neoeasity of,
natioaal,
origin of,
Langscon, Mr.
Law 3 of 1885, to amend
Law 2 of 1891
L*w (new), affecting Asia-
tics xxxiii
Speeches against, xxxvi
Suspension of, xxxix
Lawley ... ]xv
Leaders, arrest of ... 198
Legislation, on non-racial
lines xlvi
Satisfactory ... 206
Obnoxious, ... 193
Liberty ... 56
Licensing laws 32, Ixxxii
Lies, (jandhi's haired for. xii
Life, dislocation of f.^mily, xli
Life, family and School ...
112-1I3
Life, eternal rule of, ... 134
destroying trades ... 139
in ancient and modern
times, explained
maxims of.
Life, main pnrpo?e of
upon principle and
religion
Loans at fair rates
Love
VR. hatred
of aelf vs. country ...
law of,
Love-Force
Gandhi's power
145
95
135
Lyttelion, Mr,
108
... 153
... 56
... 127
... 216
... 258
... 18
Ixxxviii
... 194
M
Macaulay ... 181
Maonaugbton, Mr. ... 159
Madras Law Dinner, 1
Speech at, 51, 52
PAGE
Madras Public Reception,
Eeply to, 45. 50
Madrasis in S. Africa ... 48
Magna Carta of 8. Africa... 241
]\Iahatma Gandhi ... i
Malaviya, Madau Mohan... 86,
128, 142
gloryfying mother
tongue ... 177
Manhood, vindication of, Ixxviii
Manibhai Jarbhai ... 178
Mann, Dr. ... 156
March, The ; in 8. Africa
Iv — Ixxiv
to the Transvaal ...Ixiii
and arrest of strikers
and Gandhi ... Ixiv
at its pitch ... Ixii
Mark, St. ... 133
Marriage (Indian), in 8.
Africa ; null and void xlviii
non-recognition of, ... uOS
real sense of, ... 97
to legalise, ... Ir
recognised Ixxxii
Marshall. Mr. 37, 40. 1J9
Materialism, groaning un-
der, ... 137
Disease of, ... 140
Mauritius 134, 160
Max-muller ... 57
Meals of Gandhi ... 231
Medical Science, a quac-
kery ... 3
Medium of Instruction 175,182
burden of foreign, ... 179
Hind ; as ... 178
Mehta, Mr. on Gandhi ... 228
lady on Gandhi 229—230
Mpbta, Dr. P.J. ... 182
labour of, ... 187
Merchants, ability of, 185, 186
Spirit of, ... 184
advice to — for their
earning ... IR5
282
INDEX.
PAGE
India'a strength ... 185
Meston, 8ic James ... 159
Moyler ... Ivii
Mi'.k and hottev. flowing of. 121
Mill, J.S. " ... 129
MUnsr (Lord) ... 193
Mbhorcive eSort of, ... 195
Mioe-lahorers, improper
influences no ... Ixii
Minf 'Owners (in S. Africa)
cotiterence of, ... Ixi
Missicu to England, A; ... 207
Missi'/nary, work of, ... 116
Moderit.ion, Gandhi's prin-
ciple. ... 229
Mciern Science, viewg on, 11
Mohuined (D.viae) ... 136
Mor.ey, land and women,
avoid, ... 76
Moc;vI basis of Co-operation,
The ; 147—158
Morality, highest standard
of, ... 132
Motherland, Sslf respect to, 61
service to our, ... 75
Service of the, 46. 48
Support by, ... 314
unfading lustre on Ixxxi
vindication of the
honour of ... Ixxv
Mother Tongue, evils of
forsnking. ... 143
• illustrating the glory
of, 177—178
!\nd Japan's Power ... 180
and patriotiem ... 188
>»jQd Jewish Patriotic ^a 188
;vi)d Boer Partiotism. 189
necessity of, ... 188
period to learn — and
foreign tongue ... 178
Mother's love, Gandhi's ... xii
Mother's milk, impressions
of, ... 180
Miti Lai Ghose on Gandhi 236
PAOB
Muhamedans in 8. Africa.
50, 236
Mukdoom, service of, ...Iziii
Municipality. Saddling
the, ... 110-
MunshiR^m ... 177
JIvsore, a great Native
State ... 70
N
N.igappac, Mr. 25,47
tragic death of, 203, Ixxx
Naick. Prof. ... 178
Naidoo, Mr. and Mrs. 23. Ix
Narayanasamy, lion-heart-
ed ' xiv,'25, 47, 204, Ixxx
Narayan Singh ... 208
Natal ... 124
complicated position
in ... 192
Discs, of ... Sy
Indian leaders in, ... 199
' Natal Act ' ... 192
' Natal Mercury ' Ixviti
National Im portauce.
Vernaculars ... 187
National language 182-18S
National Movement ... G4
personal force of, ... ii
National Suicide ... 187
Need of India, The 93—105
Nellore conference, reply
to 66—67
New Act. The ... 197
New sastle Diet. 39, Ixii
New India ... 79
Non-Thieving, vow of, 99 — 100
o
Oacupation. result of
abandoning hereditary, 143
Orderliness, test of, ... 133
Ordniance, respite and re-
euactmpDt, of, ... 196
INDEX.
283
191
xxxvii
xxxix
xli, lui
... xliv
PAGE
Palates, control of, 97—99
Pjind-iVi Bros, Ixxix
Pariah Village ... 109
Parikh ... 242
on Gandhi 244—245
Parmanand ... 177
ParBis in S. Africa 50, 236
Passive Resistance, origin
of, xxxiii. xxxvii,
destiny of,
begins
Hhardships of,
a victory for,
theory and practice of,
5,-6, 17, 21
explained ...9, 10
its use in politics ... 19
the noblest education, 31
great struggle of,
India, a place to per-
fect,
method and work of, 14
a finer weapon
unto death
oath of,
to guspcnd,
revival of,
greatness to,
leaderaof,
a moral force
history of,
— stronger and purer
24
21
26
... 39
... 40
... 196
198. 206
199, 208
... 202
... 205
... 76
214, 216
210
4 points in, ... 215
and women 223-224
individious and un-
just ... 250
one point of, ... hiii
Tolstoy own, 257—262
achievements of, Ixxiv
Passive Resistera, deport-
ing xlv200
a school for, ... 23
PAGE
— — almost perfect ... 20
— — Gandhi, as imperfect
as a, . . 21
struggle of, 200. Ix
sufferings of, ... 212
and Ahimsa ... 219
Demands of, ... Ivii
Patriotism, orifjin of real... 184
on iove and hatred ... 127
and vernaculars ... 181
and mother tongue
188-189
fervor of merchants ... 184
rs religion ... 184
Pauperism, grinding, ... 131
Peaoe Preservation Ordi-
nance ... 193'
Peace ot soul, Gandhi's ... xiv
Pearson, Mr. 86, Ixxv, Ixxviii
Peasant life, true happiness 4
Penaitiea ... 165
Peter St. ... 13.5
Petition, A ... 197'
Pbsenix 21, 23, 41
Phoenix settlement, found-
ing xxxii
Pilgrimages in old days ... 12
" Pilgrims' Progiesb"' a
lessen from ... 101
Pittendrigh. RevG. ... 93
Plagut, Gandhi's work dur-
ing, ...xxxi
PlHgue and Rv. OfBoes ... 171
Plague Spots ... 2
Plague and famine ... 12
Planters and ryots in
Champaran ... 264
Polak, Mr. xliii, 24.203 ; Ixxi. iv
leads the March' ... Ixs
ure^ted Ixxiii
to the strikers Ixxui
Polak. Mrs. ... 1»
Political' life, epiritualise.
58, 72,-74
284
INDEX.
PAGE
Politioa T03— 104
Merohivnlfe' part in,-.. 184
Scudeiiis' part in, ... 103
vs. Rehgioo 5S, 103
use of Pa.s3iv« Resist-
ance in, ... 10
Porb;^nder ... viii
Pjttugese Govern aent ... 201
PoverDv, disappearance of. 99
o; Sootlaud ... 150
Prahli li. :^9 passive reeis-
ter, ... 1
a lesson from, ... 95
Pretoria, Gonferenoe in, 200, Ivi
Principle, life based on, ... 103
Prohibited immigrants ... 199
Progri"?, Eoonomio vs.
moral, 128-141
material and moral
exemplified 133,133
Progressive step, ... 6
Prostitution, cause of, ... 139
Proteats, angry, ... 204
Public life, ' ... 76
experience of, ... 82
Rabindrauath Tagore ... 177
Racial bar 199,200
eradioai.ioB of, ...xlix
statutory ... 203
reni'ivarof, 204, 207, 215
equality of , xxxv
knocked down Ixxxi
Railway Journey, horrors ofl68
a suggesti'in to improve
3rd class in ... 173
— '—smoking in. ... 172
1st 3rd class compared 172
condition of refiesh-
meuts during, ... 1G8
Railway Offices and plague, 171
Rajkot ... ix
PAGE
R>imakri8bna Parama-
himsa ... 136
vs. Gandhi ... ii
Rama Rajya for Mysore ... 70
Ramidas ... 177
R.imiuuja vs Gandhi ... ii
Ravana and Rama ... 108
Real Heroes in 8. Africa. 240
Rebufi, severe, ... 193
Reform movement of
Women ... lii
Registration, voluntary, ... xl
Ke-iiidenture, G audhis ad-
vice on, ... 39
Relief Act, The ; making
clear, 37, 210
Religion, ancestral, ... 115
and politics 10.8,118
heart-grasp ... 94
vs. patriotism ... 185
vs. Politics ... 103
vs. Swedeshi ... 116
Gandhi's contempt for, xl
R-ligio. Moral teaching ... 269
Religious force, the might of 49
Religious spirit, glorious ... 202
Rfc-registratlon ... 193
— — compulsory, ... 194
voluntary effort of, ... 107
-— to proceed with, ... 198
commencement of, ...*199
Reprisals ... xliv
Resident Indians ... 191
Riches, and Kingdom of
God ... 134
and moral turpitude... 183
Right ... 57
Right and wrong course ... 46
Rishia, strength of the ... 58
Ritch, Mr. xxxvii. 196
Roberts on Gandhi 245-246
Rockfeller ... J32
Rome, moral fall of . ... 132
Royal Assent, withheld ... xx;i
suspcneion of, ... 196
INDEX.
285-
PAGE
Royal assent, acceptance of,
xxxvii
Royal commissiou ... J 94
Rulers (Briush), Servants,
Dot masters. ... 6
Rulers and the ruled, har-
mony between, ... 7
Ruskiu ... 11
■ on co-operH-tion ... 158
quoted ... li
Ryc.ts, and co-operation ... 154
bold on ... 155
s
S'ira;! Bhat, gloryfyit.g
mother tongue ... 177
Saudert,, Mr. ... 40
Sar'karrtcharya, Jagat Guru 77,
136
Sai;)tary Reform, the task
ot, ... Ill
Sauitaiion 109—112
—— qiiestion of village, ... 120
Sarojiui Naidu Mrs i»i
ou Mr. and Mrs. Gan-
dhi 1— ill ; 230-233.
240—241
Sati, meaning of, and Mrs.
Gauuhi ... 233
Satyagrahashrama (Vide —
Ashrnma) Ixxxvii
Schlesin, Miss. 24, Ixv
School and family life 112—113
School life of Gandhi xi, xii
an incident in, ... xi
Science, material, ... 11
8yithnd'.s Poverty ... 150
Scriptures, deeper study of
Hindu, ... xvi
Sedition lo speak ... 57
Seloorne, Lord 193, 199
Self cocsciousnes.s, Gandhi
>n, ... xiv
Self-Goverument, through
Swedeshism .a""121
through Vernstculata. 190
PAGE
Salf-Governm in Transval 19&
Self-respect of rich and
Sense of Duty. Gandhi sex-
exhortation on,
Sermon on the Mount
the lesson of,
Sei.lur, S,8. his attack on
Gandhi
Seton, Mr.
Saa?-ra>. teachings of our..
bmhH,. S. P.
8it.UHti,,n, gravity of the ..
Slavery, abolishing
Slavery to the palate
Smith Adam
Smuts (General) xxxvi, 210, lix,
Ixi
to Gandhi
— ^ obdurate
Social evils
Social Gathering in honor
of Gandhi
Social Sm, the great.
Social service
and sanitation
133
1
117
84
159
217
15!^
20S
87
98
129
30
202
179
101
courage in,
in Benares,
qualiti-;8 for.
Social servainc, the
Socialist, Gandhi not a.
XXI
xiii
103
... 109
... 113
... Ill
106, 107
lO'J
99
Solomon Committee,
findings of. xxviii
Sous of Gandhi, sufferings
°'' ... 245
Sorabji Shapruji, Mr, ... 199
Soul, Gandhi's plea for
the, g_i3
Soul and body, thought on. 13
Soul Force
the real Victory in 8.
Africa
Soul Power of the human..
Soul Resistance vs. Brute
Force
18
■286
INDEX.
PAGE
S. African Be Committee. 196
8. Africa ... 160
exilo in, ... 45
Gindhi's love for, ... 25
itupreasions to. ... 46
raeeCiug .'*I1 over, ... 301
— — indentured Chinaman
in ... 88
hideousness in, ... 88
experience in, ... 58
South African struggle ... vii,
XVI — xxi
Sovereign Remedy ... -iO
Spiritual Force of Gandhi, xlii
Spiritual Struggle, Gandhi's
early, ... xiv
Starvation, to drive out, ... 99
Statutory equality ... 192
Steel Maitland, Sir A. ... 150
Strength and fortitude ... 202
Strikes, tremendous and
historic, ... 208
to crush, ... 209
Strikers in 8. Africa
Gandh'9 advioe to ...Ixxii
looked up vyithont
food Ixxiii
arrested ... Ixii
— — shot Ixxvii
famous march of, ... Iv
imprisoned ... Ix vi
— — orderline'^s of,- during
march Ixxiii
Struggle (8. African) ... vii
Principles of ... 213
reversal of. ...Iviii
a moral and spiritual
force Ixxvii i
Gandhi's record of
Ixxx-lxxxi
material fruits of the.
Ixxxi
Struggle of P. Resistance.
movement in 8. Africa. 191 —
212
PAGE
Students, advioe to, 53 — 69
and politics ... 103
plight of, ... 104
Subramania Iyer, Sir S. ... 45
Sudhauva passive resistcr. 1
Suffering, the cup of, Ixxxvii
Sugar, tax on ... 124
Suioide, causes of ... 139
Supreme Court of Natal,
Gandhi enrols in ...xxiii
Supreme Court, docision of. 193
test cases in ... 201
Swaraj ... 146
a natural thing ... 185
Through merchants ... 184
Swedesi Vow ... 185
Swadesi Enterprise 63— C5,
114—127
three branches of, ... 115
vs religion ... 116
a religious desoipliue 121,
134
not a boycott .. 131
possibilitv explained 124
Vow of. ' 00—101
3elf-Government ... 121
Swaraj ... 185
Sympathetic chord ... 19
Talk with Gandhi. A. 75-78
Tamil people, indomitable
fibre of, ... -nl'i
Tata. Ratan J. ... 203
Tax (3£). 26, 38. 20f., Ivii
to repeal xlviii. 212 215
abolition of ... xHx
and strike ... Ixi
lord Ampthill on ... Iviii
final repeal of. . )^"cv
Taylor, Rev. ... 178
Teaching, dofocts in, ... 183
Tea-.drinking. pernicions... 123
Test cases ... 201
INDEX.
287
PAGE
Test, racial not educat.ioaal 192
That Wonderiui March ... Iv
Theosophical Society,
advantages of, ... 78
Third class journey in Ry.,
condition of ... 153
experience narratied 166
— 17i
Third class Booking Office,
Black hole ... 171
Times The, the letter in... 201
on P. Resistance, Ixxiv
Tolstoy. 18, 221
on P. Resistance 257-262
Tolstory Farm. 21,23. Ixv.lxvii
Trade, iorcing free, ... 124
condition of, ... 139
Trading activity, restraint
on, ... 33
Trading class, power of ... 186
Transvaal leader ... 198
Transvaal, meeting in, ... 194
— — P, Resistance in, ... 191
famous " invasion " of Ixiv
Transvaal Act 2 of 1907 ... 211
Trinidad ... 160
Triumph, Gandhi's Great, xiii
Trust ... 157
Truth in Social Service ... 107
fearlessness, exempli-
fied 101—109
vow of, 95—96
i;s. Gold ... 140
Gandhi's love of ... xii
Spirit of ... - li
Tukaram, glorifying mother
tongue ... 177
Turmojl ... 99
u
Union Immigration Bill
xlvii, 205
Union Govt, attitude of, Iviii
"Untouchables" 61,101—103
Ixi^svii
PAGE
Vaishnavite, Gandhi a ... 217
Vaiiamma, a young and
Sweetgul 25, 48, 209, Ixxx
Vallibhai service of Ixiij
Vavauhai, Ranjitram .. 175
Vedania Kesari ... 3S7
Vegetarianism, Gandhi
decried ... xii
Vernaculars, (Indian) im-
portance of, 75, 187
disaster of neglecting,
187, 190
as a media, 102,187—190
and English language 103
a means to Self-Gov-
ernment. 19
and patriotism ... 181
pleaders enrich, ... 181
Verulam, speech at ... 37
Victoria Country ... 39
Victoria Hostel (Madras) ... 98
Village Pancbayats ...fillB
a force ... 1-20
Village sanitation ... 109
Villages, self-supporting ... 123
Violence of Ahimsa ... 97
Virtue in India and foreign
lands ... 77
Vision, Gandhi's inner ... jiv
Volksrust, Swarmed ... ixv
Vow of, Ahmisa 96—97
celibacy 97. Ixxxvii
control of palates 97-99
Pe^rlessneas ... lOl
non-thieving O'j— 100
Swedesi 100—101
Truth ;16— GC
w
Wallace, quoted 138— 140xiii
War, The, the result of
modern civilisation ... 7G
288
INDEX.
PAGE
Weftlth, result cf ... 1.39
Wealth and charity ... 140
Weaver, the lot of the ... 156
West, Mr. ... 41
West, the contact with the. 12
\Vescern nations and mAte-
riHlism ... 137
Wine, ilesh and womea,
Gandhi forswears ... xiii
Whitehead, Mrs. ... 106
Woraen (Indian) (in S.
Africa) laboursof ... 208b:xiv
exclusion from measure
195, XXXV
campaign of ... 208
Duty of — (1) to her
home ('21 to the state ... li
PAGE
Women greatness of lii, 239
auccesa of Reform
tauvement ... lii
and Passive R e b i s -
tance 223—224
suSering imprison-
ment ...Ixiii
appeal to labourers ... Ix
and the struggle ... Ix
excepting from tax ... Ivii
fortitude of liii-iv
Zanzibar ••• Ivi
Zulu RebelliGD xxxiii
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